t|l|H!fHmftlfp]liyii<ii|i[llp^ 


^\ 


Columbia  (Bnit)cr^ttj> 


LIBRARY 


t 


MEMORIALS 


AND 


CORRESPOAtdb;^CE 


OF 


CHARLES   JAMES  FOX. 


EDITED 


BY  THE  RT.  HON.  LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL,  M.P. 


TWO    VOLUMES. 


VOL.  L 


PHILADELPHIA: 

BLANCHARD     AND     LEA. 

1858. 


506B5 


Philadelphia: 
t.  k.  and  p.  g.  collins,  printers. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The  late  Lord  Holland  employed  himself  for  many  years  in 
preparing  the  materials  for  a  Life  of  Mr.  Fox.  These  materials 
were  to  be  woven  into  a  narrative,  and  the  great  events  which, 
from  1770  to  1806,  were  discussed  in  Parliament,  were  to  have 
been  reviewed  by  the  pen  of  an  enlightened  and  benevolent  states- 
man. But  Lord  Holland's  life  was  a  busy  one,  the  noble  idleness*' 
of  refined  society  and  classical  reading  took  up  a  great  part  of  his 
remaining  time,  and  little  was  left  for  transcribing,  commenting, 
and  narrating.  Soon,  the  Life  descended  into  a  collection  of  ma- 
terials ;  the  collection  of  materials,  only  partially  arranged,  was 
not  carried  beyond  the  year  1786. 

Lord  Holland  himself  foresaw  that  he  should  not  be  able  to 
complete  his  work,  and  one  day  that  he  was  employed  upon  it,  he 
told  me  that  he  believed  it  would  be  left  to  me  to  finish. 

After  Lord  Holland's  death,  Mr.  Allen,  whose  literary  charac- 
ter is  well  known,  and  justly  esteemed,  began  the  whole  again, 
inserted  many  passages  explanatory  of  the  history  of  the  time,  and 
caused  a  large  portion  of  the  correspondence  to  be  copied. 

In  this  state  I  found  the  papers  when  they  came  into  my  posses- 
sion by  the  bequest  of  the  late  Lady  Holland. 

Public  afi'airs  have  prevented  my  giving  that  early  attention  to 
these  papers  which  they  deserved.     Like  Lord  Holland,  I  should 

'  Nobile  ozio, — Machiavel. 


IV  ADVERTISEMENT. 

have  desired  to  weave  into  one  continuous  narrative,  illustrated 
by  correspondence,  the  life  of  Mr.  Fox.  The  importance  of  the 
period  during  which  he  led,  with  consummate  ability,  the  Whig 
party,  the  line  he  took  in  opposing  the  American  and  French  wars, 
preferring  the  interests  of  the  people  to  their  applause,  the  singular 
candor,  boldness,  simplicity,  and  kindness  of  his  character,  would 
have  made  it  to  me  a  labor  of  love  to  trace  the  career  of  a  man — 

*'  By  all  who  marked  his  mind  revered, 
By  all  who  knew  his  heart  beloved." 

As  it  is,  the  work  I  am  about  to  produce  must  have  a  disjointed 
and  irregular  appearance.  Its  greatest  value  will  be  found  in  the 
letters  of  Mr.  Fox  to  Lord  Holland,  written  between  1790  and 
1805.  These  letters  are  more  literary  than  political,  and  show 
how  keen  was  Mr.  Fox's  enjoyment  of  poetry,  especially  Greek 
and  Italian. 

In  the  First  Volume,  the  passages  written  by  Lord  Holland  are 
generally  marked  Y.  H.  at  their  close,  those  of  Mr.  Allen  are  in- 
cluded between  brackets  [],  and  mine  between  asterisks. 

Whatever  may  be  the  defects  of  these  volumes,  they  will,  I  trust, 
give  Englishmen  a  better  knowledge  than  they  now  possess  of  one 
of  the  most  striking  periods  of  their  history,  and  of  one  of  their 
greatest  men. 

J.  R. 

Chesham  Place, 

Jan.  10,  1853. 


COHRESPONDENCE 


OF 


CHARLES   JAMES   FOX. 


BOOK  THE   FIRST. 

The  object  of  tins  work  is  not  to  give  a  complete  life  of  Mr. 
Fox,  as  that  would  comprise  a  history  of  the  country  during  his 
time,  but  to  arrange  his  correspondence,  and  to  subjoin  notes  or 
premise  short  sentences  to  explain  the  events  alluded  to  in  the 
letters,  and  illustrate  the  character  of  the  writer,  as  well  as  his 
relation  with  those  to  whom  he  writes,  or  of  whom  he  speaks  in 
the  course  of  his  correspondence. 

In  furnishing  some  future  biographer  with  the  maberials  for  a 
more  comprehensive  work,  the  compiler  proposes  to  divide  them 
into  six  distinct  periods.  First,  such  documents,  private  or  pub- 
lic, as  relate  to  the  birth,  family,  connections,  and  education  of 
Mr.  Fox.  Secondly,  those  that  refer  to  his  own  private  or  pub- 
lic life,  from  the  period  of  his  taking  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Commons  to  his  separation  from  Lord  North  in  1774.  Thirdly, 
the  correspondence,  anecdotes,  and  events  from  1774  to  1782.* 
Fourthly,  from  1782  to  the  dissolution  of  Parliament  in  1784. 

'  I  have  divided  tlie  ttird  period,  wMcli  Lord  Holland  had  made  to 
extend  from  1774  to  1784,  into  two,  on  account  of  the  importance  of  the 
events  of  1782 — the  formation  of  the  Rockingham  Ministry,  and  the  close 
of  the  American  War. — J.  R. 
VOL.  I. — 3 


26  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [1704. 

Fifthly,  the  letters,  papers,  anecdotes,  and  recollections  relating 
to  his  privato  and  public  life,  to  the  commencement  of  the  war 
of  1793.  Sixthly,  letters,  papers,  and  recollections,  relating  to 
his  opinions,  occupations,  manners,  and  political  conduct,  from  the 
year  1793,  and  during  his  secession  from  Parliament  till  his 
return  to  Parliament  and  coalition  with  Lord  Grenville  in  1803 
and  1804.  Seventhly,  and  lastly,  correspondence,  recollections, 
notes,  and  papers,  relating  to  his  parliamentary  and  oflScial  con- 
duct, and  to  his  public  and  private  character,  from  the  year  1803 
to  his  last  illness  and  death  in  1806.  These  would  form  seven 
books. 

Sir  Stephen  Fox,  mentioned  for  his  honesty  by  Clarendon, 
and  for  his  riches  by  Grrammont,  was  the  founder  of  our  family, 
and  seems,  notwithstanding  some  little  venial  endeavors  of  his 
posterity  to  conceal  it,  to  have  been  of  a  very  humble  stock.  He 
was  born  in  1627.  He  owed  his  introduction  at  court  to  Lord 
Percy;  his  favor  with  Charles  IT.  to  Lord  Clarendon;  and  his 
general  success  in  the  world  to  integrity,  diligence,  and  abilities 
in  business.  He  was  a  Tory  both  in  his  political  and  religious 
principles;  a  money-getting  man  in  his  habits,  and,  as  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  gather  from  his  panegyrists,  his  conduct  and 
his  will  charitable,  and  affectionate  in  his  disposition.  He  was 
[  remarkable  for  having  married  a  second  time  at  the  very  advanced 
age  of  77  years;  and  as  his  daughters  by  his  first  marriage  had  the 
\  good  fortune  of  marrying  into  noble  families,  his  sons  by  the 
second  had  the  yet  greater  distinction  of  being  ennobled  by  pro- 
motion with  the  titles  of  Ilchester  and  Holland.  The  manner  of 
announcing  his  second  marriage  was  no  less  singular  than  the 
period  at  which  it  was  contracted.  His  second  wife  was  a  Miss 
Hope,  daughter  of  a  clergyman  of  that  name,  and  said  to  be 
goddaughter  of  Sir  Stephen.  On  the  death  of  her  father  she 
lived  with  Sir  Stephen's  unmarried  daughter;  and,  if  a  paper  of 
Governor  Pownall's,  communicated  to  me  by  his  son-in-law,  Mr. 
Fawkener,  be  correct,  she  announced  her  marriage,  which  had 
been  celebrated  in  private,  by  claiming  a  letter  directed  pur- 


/ 


1715.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  27 

posely  to  lier  by  Sir  Stephen,  under  the  name  of  ''  liady  Fox."^ 
Some  letters  from  her  to  her  children  at  school,  iJliistrative  of  the 
manners  of  the  last  century,  are  in  my  possession.  His  son,  the 
first  Lord  Holland  and  father  of  Mr.  Fox,  used  to  relate,  with 
some  pleasantry,  a  usa^e  in  Sir  Stephen's  family,  which  proves 
the  superstitious  veneration  in  which  Tories,  as  well  as  Jacobites, 
held  the  memory  of  Charles  I.  During  the  whole  of  the  30th  of 
January,  the  wainscot  of  the  house  used  to  be  hung  with  black, 
and  no  meal  of  any  sort  allowed  till  after  midnight.  This 
attempt  of  rendering  the  day  melancholy  by  fasting  had  a  direct 
contrary  effect  on  the  children  (afterwards  Lord  Ilchester,  Lord 
Holland,  and  Mrs.  Digby);  for  the  housekeeper,  apprehensive 
that  they  might  suffer  from  so  long  an  abstinence  from  food, 
used  to  give  the  little  folks  clandestinely  as  mq.ny  comfits  and 
sweetmeats  as  they  could  eat,  and  Sir  Stephen's  intended  fast 
was  looked  to  by  the  younger  part  of  the  family  as  a  holiday 
and  diversion.  Sir  Stephen  died  in  1715,  and  his  widow  two  or 
three  years  after  him. 

The  education,  fortunes,  political  connections,  and  history  of 
Henry,  first  Lord  Holland,  were  favorable  to  the  cultivation  of 
his  natural  talents,  but  unfavorable  to  any  great  elevation  of 
public  principle.  Expensive  and  embarrassed  in  his  youth,  he 
was  protected  and  brought  forward  by  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  and 
became  afterwards  the  public  opponent  of  Lord  Chatham;  and 
though  on  many  occasions  the  friend  and  supporter  of  the  Whigs, 
he  was  at  all  times  disgusted  with  the  duplicity  and  littleness  of 
their  leader  Newcastle.  The  correspondence  at  his  marriage 
affords  strong  evidence  of  the  change  in  manners  for  the  better. 
The  letters  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Richmond,  as  well  aS 
the  sensation  of  the  Court  on  a  duke's  daughter  marrying  a  man 
who,  though  of  consequence  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  in 

1  [There  is  a  slight  inaccuracy  in  this  anecdote,  as  in  most  stories 
handed  down  by  tradition.  Sir  Stephen  had  no  unmarried  daughter  alive 
at  the  time  of  his  second  marriage.  The  person  with  whom  Miss  Hope 
had  lived  as  companion  was  Mrs.  Fox,  wife  of  his  son  Charles. — J.  A.] 


28  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  5. 

the  Ministry,  was  not  of  an  illustrious  family,  prove  the  preva- 
lence of  an  absurd  pride  in  that  day,  which  no  Englishman  can 
now  easily  conceive. 

Any  detailed  account  of  Mr.  Henry  Fox's  life  and  fortunes 
would  lead  the  writer  too  far  from  his  main  subject.  Nothing 
more  than  those  circumstances  in  his  situation  and  character, 
that  could  have  an  influence  on  the  early  conduct  and  opinions 
of  his  son,  will  be  necessary  in  this  work.  We  shall,  in  the 
course  of  it,  have  abundant  evidence  of  the  effects  which  his 
indulgent  education,  and  the  principles  and  connections  he  had 
espoused,  produced  on  Mr.  Fox  in  the  first  years  of  his  life.  Grood 
and  bad  resulted.  The  good  was  permanent.  The  evil,  owing 
to  the  accidents  of  his  political  life,  and,  above  all,  to  the  natu- 
ral tendency  of  his  disposition,  was  temporary,  and  was  weeded 
out  gradually  by  the  society  of  men  of  purer  principles  and  more 
enlarged  philosophy,  and  by  the  necessary  operations  of  a  reflect- 
ing mind  and  an  excellent  heart. 

[Charles  James  Fox  was  third  son  of  Henry  Fox,  afterwards 
Lord  Holland,  and  of  Lady  Georgiana  Caroline  Fox,  eldest  daugh- 
ter of  Charles,  second  Duke  of  Richmond.  He  was  born  in 
Conduit  Street  on  the  24th  January,  1749  (N.S.)] 

[As  a  child  he  was  remarkable  for  the  quickness  of  his  parts, 
his  engaging  disposition  and  early  intelligence.]  ^'  There's  a 
clever  little  boy  for  you,^'  exclaims  his  father  to  Lady  Caroline, 
in  repeating  a  remark  made  a  propos  by  his  son  Charles,  when 
hardly  more  than  two  years  and  a  half  old.  "  I  dined  at  home 
to-day,^^  he  says  in  another  letter  to  her,^  "  tete-a-tete  with  Charles, 
intending  to  do  business,  but  he  has  found  me  pleasanter  employ- 
ment, and  was  very  sorry  to  go  away  so  soon ;"  and  writing  next 
day,  he  says,  "  I  never  saw  Charles  so  well  as  he  is  now.  I  grow 
immoderately  fond  of  him.''  "Is  he  my  sensible  child  still?" 
[he  asks  in  a  letter  of  the  ITth  December,  1754,  when  his  son  was 
not  six  years  old ;  and  on  the  11th  January,  1756,  he  writes  to 
Lady  Caroline,] — "  I  got  to  Holland  House  at  seven,  found  all 

«  March  27,  1752. 


1754.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  29 

the  boys  very  well ;  but,  to  say  the  truth,  took  most  notice  of 
Charles.  I  never  saw  him  better  or  more  merry.''  ''  I  found 
Charles"  [he  says  in  another  letter  written  about  the  same  time] 
"  very  well,  very  pert,  and  very  argumentative.'' — "  He  is  all  life, 
spirits,  motion,  and  good-humor." — "  Stage-mad,  but  it  makes 
him  read  a  good  deal."  [He  was  naturally  of  a  passionate  tem- 
per, but  learned  to  control  it,  as  he  afterwards  told  the  story 
himself,  in  consequence  of  a  conversation  he  accidentally  over- 
heard when  a  very  little  boy.]  His  mother  having  said  to  his 
father,  '^  Charles  is  dreadfully  passionate,  what  shall  we  do  with 
him  ?"  his  father  replied,  '^  Oh  !  never  mind,  he  is  a  very  sensible 
little  fellow,  and  will  learn  to  cure  himself."  ^'  I  will  not  deny," 
said  Mr.  Fox,  ^^  that  I  was  a  very  sensible  little  boy,  a  very 
clever  little  boy,  and  what  I  heard  made  an  impression  on  me, 
and  was  of  use  to  me  afterwards." 

Though  there  are  many  proofs  in  the  manuscript  correspond- 
ence I  possess  of  the  strong  parental  affection  of  Mr.  and  Lady 
Caroline  Fox  for  their  children,  and  of  the  expectations  which 
the  surprising  and  growing  talents  of  Mr,  Fox  excited  even  in 
childhood,  yet  there  is  nothing  in  these  letters  which  proves  the 
excessive  indulgence  so  often   and  so  justly  imputed  to  Lord 
Holland  as  the  cause  of  the  subsequent  extravagance  and  dissi- 
pation of  his  son.     Of  the  fact,  however,  there  is  no  doubt.     Con- 
temporary friends  and  foes,   intimate  acquaintances  and  mere 
gossips,  all  concur  in  describing  or  relating  traits  of  it.     Among 
them  an  incident  of  a  wall  at  Holland  House  is  related  in  Mrs. 
Bellamy's  Memoirs  3*  and  I  find  the  following  confirmation  of  it 
in  Manuscript  Reminiscences  of  Sir  Gr.  Colebrook,  who  was  no  j . 
friend  either    of   Lord  Holland  or  of  Mr.  Fox.     ^'  Mr.  Fox's  1 
children  were    to  receive  no  contradiction.     Having   promised 
Charles  that  he  should  be  present  when  a  garden-wall  was  to  be    '\ 
flung  down,  and  having  forgotten  it,  the  wall  was  built  up  again, 
that  he  might  perform  his  promise."     This  was  perhaps  foolish,   f 
but  the  performance  of  a  promise  was  the  moral  inculcated  by  \ 

'  Letter  52d. 
3* 


30  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  7. 

'  the  folly,  and  that,  ce  me  semhle,  is  no  bad  lesson.  [That  he 
was  scrupulous  in  keeping  the  promises  he  had  made  to  his  chil- 
dren appears  from  a  letter  written  from  Holland  House  to  Lady 
Holland  in  the  country/  in  which  he  says  :]  "  "Whenever  you 
come,  do  but  let  me  know  the  day  and  hour  when  you  will  be  at 
Salthill,  and  Farnen  and  Charles  shall  meet  you  there.  I  prom- 
ised Charles  he  should  see  his  brother,  and  he  won't  be  put  off." 
[The  first  rudiments  of  his  education  were  received  at  a  pre- 
paratory school  of  some  celebrity,  kept  at  Wandsworth  by  a 
Frenchman  of  the  name  of  Pampcllonne.]  "  Charles,"  says  his 
father,  in  a  letter  of  the  24lh  of  February,  1756,  "  determines 
to  go  to  Wandsworth," — [probably  from  a  knowledge  of  the 
companions  he  was  there  to  meet  with.  He  was  indulged  in  his 
choice,  having  had  the  alternative  of  staying  at  home  till  he  was 
of  age  to  go  to  Eton  ;  and  appears  to  have  remained  at  Pampel- 
lonne's  till  autumn,  1758.  Of  this  school  and  its  inmates  there 
is  a  lively  account  given  by  the  late  Earl  of  Egremont,  in  a  letter 
to  Lord  Holland  of  the  26th  of  January,  1820.] 

EARL  OF  EGREMONT  TO  LORD  HOLLAND. 

"  DExiR  Lord  Holland  : — 

"  I  went  to  Pampellonne's  school  at  Wandsworth  at  six  years 
old,  and  at  eight  I  left  it,  and  went  to  Westminster.  I  was  so 
young,  and  I  am  now  so  old,  that  I  cannot  recollect  with  perfect 
accuracy  at  this  distance  ]  but  I  am  convinced  that  Fitzpatrick 
was  never  at  that  school.  Charles  Fox  was  there  in  my  time, 
for,  I  believe,  a  year ;  which,  as  he  was  two  years  older  than  me, 
would  send  him  to  Eton  at  nine  years  old.  There  were  more 
boys  of  some  station  in  life  at  that  little  school  than  usual  in  so 
small  a  number, — I  think  Lord  Ilchester,  but  I  am  sure  his 
brother,^  about  my  age,  whose  face  I  have  never  seen  since.  The 
late  Duke  of  Leinster,  and  his  elder  brother,  who  died  soon  after, 
Lord  Fortescue,  and,  I  think,  Lord  Bray  brook,  Sir  Thomas  Frank- 
land,  the  late  Marquis  of  Townshend — but  he  was  younger  than 

1  January  18,  1757.         2  Cq]   gtrangways,  alive  now,  1829.— V.  IT. 


1756.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  31 

mc,  and  I  do  not  recollect  him,  but  he  was  fond  of  such  reminis- 
cences, and  never  met  me  in  company  without  alluding  to  it — 
and  many  others ;  but  all  of  them  except  one  (Lord  Aylesford, 
who  went  with  me  to  Westminster),  went  to  Eton,  and  I  saw 
no  more  of  them  until  I  met  them  at  Oxford  or  in  the  world.  I 
do  not  recollect  whether  the  Grenvilles  were  there,  and  the  pro- 
bable reason  of  my  doubt  about  it  is  that  from  near  relationship 
I  saw  so  much  of  them  in  early  youth,  that  I  do  not  distinguish 
between  home  and  school.  Charles  Fox  had  left  Oxford  before 
I  went  there.  I  did  not  fall  in  with  him  again  after  Pampel- 
lonne's,  until  I  was  of  age,  and  met  him  in  the  London  world. 
Fitzpatrick,^  who,  I  believe,  was  never  at  Pampellonne's,  was  at 
Westminster,  older  than  me,  and  above  me  at  school,  but  I  caught 
him  in  the  sixth  form,  saw  enough  of  him  to  know  that  he  had 
been  very  idle,  and  had  contrived  to  acquire  as  little  learning  as 
was  possible  for  a  person  of  his  abilities  to  do  in  his  progress 
through  the  school.  He  was  a  page ;  and  as  in  those  days  courts 
were  very  frequent,  a  great  part  of  his  time  was  lost  in  sedan- 
chairs  and  drawing-rooms,  and  in  the  necessary  preparation  of 
powder  and  pomatum.  Dimiter,  an  old  friend  of  mine,  who  had 
the  living  of  Petworth,  used  to  help  him  through  his  exer- 
cises;  and  what  with  jokes  of  his  own,  and  the  negligence  of 
the  masters,  he  got  on  with  little  trouble  and  less  profit.  I 
remember  one  instance,  which  diverted  him  and  us  very  much. 
We  had  portions  of  the  classics  to  make  remarks  upon.  He 
took  something  in  Virgil,  where  there  was 

"Dardana  qui  Paridis  direxti  tela  manusque 
Corpus  in  ^acidae ;" 

1  I  transcribe  this  part  of  the  letter  as  well  as  the  beginning,  though 
it  has  no  immediate  relation  to  Mr.  Fox  or  his  education.  I  do  so  for 
two  reasons:  first,  because  it  regards  my  maternal  uncle,  and  Mr.  Fox's 
deares-T  friend,  and  secondly,  because  the  observant,  sprightly,  and  accu- 
rate writer  of  it,  in  giving  me  his  recollections  of  school,  has,  as  usual, 
drawn  a  lively  picture  of  the  times  and  of  his  contemporaries,  even  in 
boyhood. — V.  H. 


32  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  9. 

(a  very  bad  line — this  is  my  remark  at  68.)  Then  his  observa- 
tion was :  'It  is  very  odd  that  Virgil  should  have  been  so  ignorant 
as  not  to  know  that  Achilles  was  not  vulnerable  in  the  body,  but 
in  the  heel/  'Poh!  it  is  a  foolish  quibble/  says  the  master;  'it 
means  the  person  of  Achilles,  and  not  a  distinction  between 
body  and  heel/  Fitzpatrick  acquiesced;  but  in  three  weeks' 
time  produced  it  again.  The  master  very  angry — he,  in  his  cool, 
slow  way  defending  it,  and  all  the  boys  laughing.  In  this  way 
he  went  on ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  whatever  knowledge  he 
possessed  was  acquired  after  being  at  school." 

[In  autumn,  1758,  Mr.  Fox  was  sent  to  Eton.  While  a  child, 
and  when  first  at  Eton,  he  appears  to  have  been  of  a  sickly  con- 
stitution. In  the  letters  preserved  by  his  family,  apprehensions 
are  frequently  expressed  for  his  health.  In  one  written  while  he 
was  at  Eton,  his  father  says  to  Lady  Caroline — ]  "Whenever 
you  think  London  or  Holland  House  better  for  Charles  than 
Eton,  be  assured  I  shall  like  it.  There  is  no  comparison  to  be 
made  between  health  and  learning;  besides  that,  I  am  sure 
enough  for  him  of  the  latter;  I  wish  to  Grod  I  were  so  of  the 
former.''* 

[While  at  Eton,  he  appears  to  have  been  a  diligent  scholar, 
and,  during  part  at  least  of  the  time  he  passed  there,  he  was 
assisted  in  his  lessons  and  exercises  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Francis,  the 
translator  of  Horace,  and  father  of  the  late  Sir  Philip  Francis. 
He  was  not,  however,  kept  to  his  studies  without  interruption. 
He  appears  to  have  been  frequently  brought  to  town  for  his 
amusement,  and,  among  other  occasions,  to  be  present  at  the 
coronation  in  1761.  Having  about  that  time  met  with  some 
accident,  his  father  remarks:]  "The  article  (in  the  newspapers) 
of  Charles's  mishap  has  brought  several  messages.  The  boy  is 
a  great  deal  better  beloved  than  his  father  is."  [In  the  following 
year,  before  Mr.  Fox  had  connected  himself  with  Lord  Bute,] 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire  concludes  a  letter  of  business  to  him 

*  Septcvmber  30,  1758. 


1763.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  33 

with  these  words :  "  Commend  me  to  your  son  Charles  for  his 
sagacity" — a  strong  expression  from  a  grave  man,  in  a  grave  let- 
ter, about  a  lad  not  fourteen  years  of  age. 

[In  May,  1763,  the  fondness  and  mistaken  indulgence  of  his 
father  took  him  from  school,  and  carried  him  first  to  Paris,  and 
then  to  Spa.  After  wasting  four  months  idly  abroad,  he  went 
back  to  England  under  the  care  of  Sir  George,  (afterwards)  Lord 
Macartney,  and,  much  to  his  credit,  he  returned  to  Eton  at  his 
own  desire.  His  reception  there  was,  however,  far  from  flatter- 
ing. He  was  quizzed  by  the  boys,  rallied  by  Dr.  Barnard,  the 
head-master,  and  actually  flogged  while  fresh  from  the  brilliant 
society  he  had  just  quitted.  At  Spa  he  had  been  initiated  in 
play;  and  his  father  is  said  to  have  instigated  and  encouraged 
him  in  a  propensity  which  became  the  source  of  much  future 
unhappiness  to  both. 

In  November,  1763,  his  father  went  down  to  Eton  to  hear 
him  speak,  and  afterwards  brought  him  to  town  to  attend  the 
debates  in  Parliament  on  the  publications  of  Mr.  Wilkes.  He 
was  thus  present  at  the  passing  of  the  memorable  resolution  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  "'The  North  Briton,^  No.  45,  was 
a  false,  scandalous,  and  seditious  libel  ;'^  and,  from  his  father's 
connection  with  the  ministry,  he  most  probably  participated 
warmly  in  the  sentiments  of  the  majority  on  that  occasion.] 

Among  my  grandfather's  papers  I  found  the  following  verses, 
written  by  Charles  James  Fox  in  1764,  when  he  was  fifteen  or 
sixteen  years  old,  and  still,  I  think,  at  Eton.  When  I  mentioned 
them  to  him,  he  said:  "Oh,  I  remember  them  well;  it  was  very 
foolish  of  my  father  to  keep  them,  for  they  are  all  wrong.  I  did 
not  at  that  time  know  the  rules  of  French  versification.'^  Pos- 
sibly the  subject,  viz.  a  contrast  between  Bute  and  Pitt,  to  the 
advantage  of  the  former,  was  as  unpleasant  a  recollection  to  him 
as  the  faults  in  the  metre  of  this  juvenile  exercise  in  a  foreign 
language.  That  circumstance,  however,  gives  them  some  little 
interest,  and,  with  all  their  faults,  they  are  the  composition  of  a 
lad  of  promising  abilities : — 


34  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [mTAT.  15. 

Longtcnis  clu  peuple  Pitt  favori  adore 
Les  meprisant  toujours,  en  fut  toujours  aime, 
Estimant  leur  amour,  il  protligua  leur  vie, 
Et  cherchoit  la  gloire  aux  clepens  de  sa  patrie. 
Le  peuple  malheureux,  ebloui  du  succes, 
Voyoit  bien  ses  victoires,  sans  voir  leur  effets ; 
Dedaignant  de  la  paix  la  douceur  plus  trauquille, 
II  suivit,  volontiers,  une  guerre  inutile ; 
Loua  de  ses  projets  le  detestable  auteur, 
Content  d'etre  perdu  pourvu  qu'il  fut  vainqueur ; 
Et  chantant  de  leur  Pitt  la  vertu  si  vantee, 
De  la  Chine  au  Perou  etend  sa  renommee. 
Tandis  que  de  son  Prince  veritable  ami 
Bute  vivoit  toujours  vertueux  et  hai, 
En  vain  il  terminoit,  par  une  paix  heureuse, 
Une  guerre,  a  la  foix  funeste  et  glorieuse  ; 
Nous  lui  refusames  I'amour  qui  lui  fut  du, 
II  perdit  cet  amour  en  suivant  la  vertu. 
Nous  sommes  des  ingrats,  qm  rendant  nos  hommages 
A  un  fourbe  orateur,  refusons  nos  suffrages 
Au  digne  Citoyen,  qui  nous  aime  a  ce  point, 
Qu'il  nous  veut  conserver  quand  nous  n'en  voudrons  point. 
Recevez  ce  portrait,  cher  Nicole,  d'une  terre, 
Que  je  rougis,  en  effet,  de  nommer  ma  mere. 
1764.  C.  J.  F. 

[In  spring,  1764,  Lord  Holland  writes  from  Paris  to  Mr. 
Campbell,  of  Cawdor :]  ''  My  son  Charles  really  deserves  all  that 
can  be  said  of  his  parts,  as  I  will  convince  you  when  I  see  you 
at  Holland  House.  But  he  has  what  I  value  much  more — good 
sense,  good  nature,  and  as  many  good  and  amiable  qualities  as 
ever  met  in  any  one's  composition.  I  have  two  sons  here;  the 
eldest  bids  fair  for  being  as  universally  and  as  much  beloved  as 
ever  I  was  hated.  Thus  happy  in  private  life,  am  I  not  in  the 
right  to  leave  the  public?" 

[Having  remained  at  Eton  until  the  commencement  of  the 
summer  holidays  in  1764,  Mr.  Fox  was  sent  in  the  following 
October  to  Oxford,  and  placed  at  Hertford  College,  under  the 
tuition  of  Dr.  Newcome,  afterwards  Primate  of  Ireland.     Hert- 


1764.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  35 

ford  College  was  always  a  small  and  poor  college,  but  had  at  that 
time  obtained  a  temporary  celebrity  from  the  reputation  of  Dr. 
Newcome/  in  consequence  of  which  Mr.  Fox,  and  other  young 
men  of  rank,  were  sent  to  it.  Some  years  after  it  became  ex- 
tinct; the  building,  having  escheated  to  the  Crown,  was  trans- 
ferred by  act  of  Parliament  to  the  University,  and  now  forms  the 
site  of  Magdalen  Hall.]  Of  Mr.  Fox's  application  at  college, 
and  of  his  habits,  extracts  from  his  own  letters,  and  those  of  his 
relations  and  friends,  will  afford  the  best  proof. 

C.  J.  FOX  TO  Sm  GEORGE,  AFTERWARDS  LORD,  MACARTNEY. 

"Holland  House,  December  2b,  1764. 

"Dear  Macartney: — 

"As  my  father  defers  writing  because  I  write,  you  will  expect 
to  hear  all  the  news  of  the  town  from  me,  and  I  will  satisfy  you 
as  much  as  is  in  my  power.  Sir  Thomas  Clarke,  Master  of  the 
Kolls,  died  about  a  month  ago,  upon  which  it  was  first  settled 
that  Norton  should  have  his  place,  and  Charles  Yorke  to  be 
made  Attorney-General;  but  he  altered  his  mind,  and  would  not 
take  it.  However,  he  had  a  patent  of  precedency,  and  Sewell  is 
made  Master  of  the  Rolls. 

"  It  is  said  that  Charles  Yorke  refused  the  Attorney-General- 
ship, because  Lord  Sandwich  would  not  comply  with  some  of  his 
demands  relative  to  Cambridge.  He  insisted  .that  Lord  Sand- 
wich should  give  him  his  word  never  to  oppose  any  Cambridge- 
man  whom  Lord  Hardwick  and  Yorke  should  recommend.  If 
this  be  his  reason,  why  did  he  accept  the  patent  of  precedency? 
Churchill  is  dead.  His  friend  Wilkes  has  published  a  pamphlet 
called  a  letter  to  his  constituents  at  Aylesbury,  and  sent  it  to 
London  by  Mr.  Stanley's  servant  to  Lords  Mansfield,  Halifax, 

'  [Dr.  Ne-wcome  was  appointed  to  an  Irish  bisliopric  in  1767,  and  after 
various  translations  lie  was  promoted,  during  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  short 
Lieutenancy,  to  the  Primacy.  It  was  said  at  Dublin,  when  Lord  Fitz- 
William  was  abruptly  recalled,  that  Dr.  Newcome's  appointment  was  the 
only  lasting  benefit  he  had  been  able  to  confer  on  Ireland. — J.  A.] 


36  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  15. 

Sandwich,  Temple,  and  others.  It  contains  nothing  but  a  justi- 
fication of  his  conduct  as  to  the  ^  North  Briton.'  He  says  it 
was  respectful  to  the  King.  The  '  Essay  on  Woman'  he  calls 
an  idle  poem,  in  which  he  had  ridiculed  nothing  but  a  creed 
which  the  great  Tillotson  wished  the  Church  of  England  fairly 
rid  of.     It  contains  violent  abuse  of  Lord  Mansfield 

"  This  is  all  the  public  news  I  can  think  of.  If  I  recollect 
more  before  I  finish  I  shall  put  it  in,  though  perhaps  you  may 
have  heard  all  before  from  some  other  correspondent.  Now  for 
private  news.  The  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Grafton  are  parted. 
I  cannot  learn  the  immediate  reason  of  their  separation.  All  I 
have  heard  is,  that  their  tempers  did  not  suit.  Our  friend 
Hinchclifie^  is  tutor  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  by  which  he  has 
600Z.  a  year.  I  have  not  seen  him  since.  Crewe  is  in  town. 
James  I  saw  two  days  ago,  who  intends  writing  to  you  soon. 
Crawford  goes  with  me  to-morrow  to  Bunbury's,  where  Upton,^ 
I  believe,  will  come  too. 

"  Lord  and  Lady  Holland  and  Harry  go  to-morrow  to  Good- 
wood. We  have  heard  lately  from  my  brother  (Stephen) ;  he 
is  very  well,  and  loves  Paris  better  than  ever.  Mrs.  and  Miss 
Greville^  went  out  of  town  the  18th.  Miss  Greville  had  been 
ill,  but  was  recovered.  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  we  do  not  hear 
my  brother  plays,  which,  I  believe,  you  will  be  glad  to  hear. 
My  mother  is  very  well.  My  father  complained  of  pain  in  his 
knees,  but  he  is'  now  better,  and,  in  my  opinion,  very  well ;  he 
has  had  the  asthma  once  or  twice,  but  not  bad. 

"  We  have  heard  from  Lady  Susan  since  her  arrival  at  New 
York.  I  do  not  think  they  will  make  much  of  their  lands,  and 
I  fear  it  will  be  impossible  to  get  O'Brien  a  place.  I  like 
Oxford  well  enough.  I  read  there  a  great  deal,  and  am  very 
fond  of  mathematics.  I  believe  I  shall  go  to  Paris  in  the 
spring  with  my  mother;  Lady  Sarah,*  perhaps,  may  go  with  us. 
She  will  probably  return  with  us.     I  fear  you  had  a  very  un- 

J  Afterwards  Bisliop  of  Peterborougli. 

2  Afterwards  Lord  Templcton.  ^  Afterwards  Mrs.  Crewe. 

^  Lady  Sarah  Lennox. 


1764.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  37 

pleasant  journey.  I  hope  the  cold  of  Petersburg  agrees  with 
you.  We  have  very  cold  weather  here.  I  hope  to  hear  from 
you  very  soon.  I  can  recollect  nothing  more  at  present  you  can 
wish  to  hear,  except  that  I  am  very  well.  Believe  me,  my  dear 
Macartney,  I  sincerely  wish  you  so,  and  that  you  may  always  be 
happy.  Any  professions  of  friendship  would  be  needless  from 
one  whom  you  know  to  be  so  affectionate  a  friend.  I  wish  sin- 
cerely for  our  meeting.  If  you  stay  long  in  Russia,  I  may  per- 
haps visit  you  there. 

"  Adieu, 

^'  Yours  unalterably, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 

Mr.  Fox  had  always  a  great  regard  for  Lord  Macartney,  and 
thought  him,  as  he  was,  a  very  friendly  and  honorable  man. 
But  Mr.  Fox  did  not  retain  the  high  notion  he  had  conceived  of 
his  abilities  early  in  life,  and  used  afterwards  to  smile  at  himself 
for  having  mistaken  Macartney's  singular  memory  and  absurd 
paradoxes  for  great  acquirements  and  abilities.  Macartney  was 
in  truth  a  foolish,  good  sort  of  man,  with  a  prodigious  memory, 
and  a  playful  sort  of  self-sufficiency,  which  induced  him  to  sport 
paradoxes  he  could  not  maintain,  and  to  imagine  that  those 
whom  he  invited  to  laugh  at  them  secretly  admired  him  for  his 
courage  or  ingenuity  in  avowing  them.  He  was  much  too 
aifected  and  artificial  to  suit  Mr.  Fox  as  a  companion,  and  much 
too  worldly  to  espouse  his  politics  or  attach  himself  to  him  in 
public. 

Horace  Walpole  says  of  Macartney  in  1768,  ^'  He  was  a  young 
and  handsome  Irishman  attached  to  Lord  Holland,  with  whose 
eldest  son  he  had  travelled  as  a  kind  of  governor.  He  was  an 
amiable  man,  with  various  knowledge  and  singular  memory,  but 
no  other  extraordinary  talents."^     The  character  is  a  just  one. 

1  H.  Walpole's  Memoirs. 
VOL.  I. — 4 


88  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  16. 


MR.  FOX  TO  SIR  GEORGE  MACARTNEY. 

"  Oxford,  February  13,  1765. 

"  Dear  Macartney  : — 

'^  I  received,  about  a  month  ago,  a  letter  from  you,  dated 
Memel,  in  Russia,  wliicli  gave  me  great  pleasure,  as  it  gives  me 
hopes  that  I  shall  hear  from  you  pretty  constantly.  You  cannot 
expect  to  hear  much  from  this  place.  All  I  know  that  you  can 
wish  to  hear  is  that  Sir  William  Meredith  made,  the  29th  of 
last  month,  a  motion  to  declare  (general)  warrants  illegal,  and 
that  it  was  determined  not  to  put  the  question  by  a  majority  of 
224  to  185.  I  really  know  no  more  of  politics,  but  will  send 
this  open  to  my  father,  who  will  perhaps  tell  you  more.  I  refer 
you  to  him  for  news  from  Ste,  as  I  have  not  heard  from  him. 
I  am  heartily  obliged  to  you  for  your  advice  about  French, 
which  I  will  undoubtedly  follow,  as  I  am  thoroughly  convinced 
of  its  utility.*  I  read  here  much,  and  like  vastly  (what  I  know 
you  think  useless)  mathematics.  I  believe  they  are  useful,  and 
I  am  sure  they  are  entertaining,^  which  is  alone  enough  to  re- 

*  He  kept  his  promise ;  and,  in  the  course  of  that  and  the  two  ensuing 
years,  made  himself  an  excellent  Frenchman.  Few  Englishmen  have 
ever  spoken  or  written  that  language  with  more  care  and  correctness. 
Napoleon  is  made,  in  some  memoirs,  to  quote  Mr.  Fox  as  saying  some- 
thing— "  dans  son  viauvais  Francais.^''  I  think  it  is  unlikely;  but,  if  true, 
it  will  perhaps  confirm  the  suspicion  that  he  was  himself  neither  a  judge 
nor  a  proficient  in  the  pronunciation  and  idiom  of  the  language.  Pari- 
sians pretend  that  he  spoke  it  with  a  strong  Italian  accent ;  and  Mr.  Fox 
himself  remarked  that  it  was  not  the  French  of  old  Paris  society. — V.  H. 

2  Rather  a  whimsical  epithet  for  mathematics.  Perhaps  he  had  a  fancy 
to  combat  one  paradox  with  another.  Macartney  thought  mathematics 
useless ;  so  he  declared  them  entertaining.  AVhen  he  says  he  read  much 
mathematics,  regard  mvist  be  had  to  the  place  from  whence  he  wrote. 
'What  constituted — and,  above  all,  what  then  constituted — much  mathe- 
matics at  Oxford,  would  be  very  little  at  Cambridge,  or  in  any  other  place 
destined  for  the  education  of  gentlemen.  But  a  lad  of  sixteen  may  be 
allowed  to  speak  the  language  of  the  place.  Mr.  Fox  had  a  wonderful 
capacity  for  calculation,  and  a  great  aptitude,  no  doubt,  for  all  branches 


1765.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  39 

commend  them  to  me.  I  did  not  expect  my  life  here  could  be 
so  pleasant  as  I  find  it ;  but  I  really  think,  to  a  man  who  reads 
a  great  deal,  there  cannot  be  a  more  agreeable  place.  My 
mother  still  continues  in  her  resolution  to  go  to  Paris  in  spring, 
where  I  shall  be  with  her.  My  brother  will  probably  return 
with  us.  I  think  I  have  now  told  you  all  I  know  about  our 
family  and  their  intentions,  in  return  to  which  I  hope  to  hear  a 
great  deal  about  Petersburg  and  your  reception  there.  I  cannot 
suspect  you  again  of  being  so  devoid  of  taste*  as  to  fall  in  love 
with  a  woman  under  forty,  though  as  you  have  once  begun  to 
give  wayj  you  may  perhaps  be  reduced  in  time  to  be  in  love  with 
a  tripping  milliner  girl  of  fifteen.  I  hear  there  is  very  deep 
play  at  Petersburg.  I  hope  that  that  will  not  tempt  you  to 
break  your  resolution  against  gaming.  I  think  you  did  very 
well  to  pass  your  Latin  speech  upon  the  magistrates  of  Dantzic 
for  extempore.  I  cannot  say  your  application  of  Ste's  speech 
about  Sir  James  Macdonald  was  well  applied.  When  he  com- 
plimented the  English  young  men,  he  included  himself  and 
raised  their  idea  of  him.  You,  on  the  contrary,  lessened  their 
opinion  of  you  by  putting  the  other  ministers  on  a  par  with 
yourself.  Crawford  and  James,  when  I  saw  them  last,  both 
intended  to  write  to  you.  Whether  they  have  or  not,  I  cannot 
tell.  If  there  were  any  way  of  sending  you  pamphlets,  I  would 
send  you  a  new  poem,  called  the  '  Traveller,'  which  appears  to 
me  to  have  a  great  deal  of  merit.  I  do  not  know  anything  else 
that  I  would  advise  you  to  read  if  you  were  here,  though  there 
have  been  two  or  three  political  pamphlets  much  admired.  I 
was  told  the  rest  of  your  journey  was  likely  to  be  tolerable 
enough  on  account  of  the  frosts.     I  hope  it  proved  so.     You  did 

of  mathematics;  but  I  have  often  heard  him  regret  that  he  had  applied 
so  little  to  them ;  and  ascribe  his  neglect  of  them  to  the  superficial  man- 
ner in  which  they  were  taught  at  Oxford.  A  symptom  of  the  little  store 
set  upon  them  may  be  discerned  in  the  subsequent  letter  of  Newcome  to 
his  pupil. — V.  H. 

^  One  of  Lord  Macartney's  paradoxes,  that  a  woman  was  never  lovely 
till  she  had  passed  forty. 


40  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  16. 

not  describe  your  stay  at  Memel  as  agreeable.  It  is  indeed  a 
great  way  from  hence  to  Russia,  but  I  do  not  absolutely  despair 
of  seeing  you  there,  though  the  thoughts  of  it  at  present  I 
believe  frighten  my  mother  a  little.  However,  if  I  never  see 
you  there,  it  may  not  perhaps  be  so  long  before  we  meet  as  we 
at  present  imagine.  Let  us,  however,  supply  as  much  as  we  can 
what  the  distance  that  separates  us  forbids  by  writing  continually 
to  each  other.  So  as  I  hear  often  from  you  (if  it  be  but  to  tell 
me  you  are  well),  I  shall  be  satisfied,  and  will  promise  in  return 
to  write  regularly.  I  dare  say  you  will  now  and  then  have  a 
letter  from  Ste.  You  know  him  too  well  to  expect  to  keep  up  a 
regular  correspondence  with  him.  I  am,  dear  Macartney,  with 
the  most  unalterable  friendship, 

"  Yours, 

"CHARLES  JAMES  FOX." 

Here  follows  a  postscript  from  Lord  Holland,  confirming  the 
newspaper  intelligence,  and  not  worth  transcribing,  or  even  ad- 
verting to,  further  than  as  it  proves  the  easy  footing  on  which 
Charles  Fox  lived  with  his  father. 

Another  letter  from  Mr.  Fox  to  Sir  G-eorge  Macartney  gives 
an  account  of  the  exaggerated  report  of  his  father's  illness, 
which  had  been  sufficient  to  call  him  from  Oxford,  but  never 
dangerous,  and,  when  he  wrote,  nearly  removed. 

In  March,  1765,  Lord  Holland,  in  a  letter  to  Sir  George  Ma- 
cartney, says — '^  At  Easter,  the  three  sisters^  go  to  Paris,  Charles 
and  I  sail  to  sup  with  them  at  Calais.  Charles  goes  on  with 
them,  and  I  return  to  Kingsgate — Charles  is  still  at  Oxford, 
and,  I  hear,  studying  very  hard.'' 

It  was  probably  upon  his  apprising  his  Oxford  tutor.  Dr.  New- 
come,   of  this  expedition  with  his  mother  to  Paris,  that  that 

»  [The  three  sisters  were  Lady  Holland,  Lady  Louisa  ConoUy,  and 
Lady  Sarah  Bunbury,  in  addition  to  "whom  the  party  consisted  of  Stephen 
Fox,  Charles  Fox,  and  Mr.  Upton.  They  sailed  on  the  22d  April,  went 
no  further  than  Paris,  and  returned  to  England  on  the  8th  of  July. 
Charles  Fox  went  back  to  Oxford,  and  remained  there  till  spring,  1766.] 


1765.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  41 

gentleman  wrote  him  the  letter  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy, 
and  which  Mr.  Fox  carried  about  in  his  pocketbook  during  the 
latter  years  of  his  life,  and  used  not  unfrequently  to  produce 
with  a  sort  of  playful  triumph  to  confute  his  political  friends, 
when  they  censured  hiin,  with  great  appearance  of  reason,  for 
his  idleness  and  negligence  in  not  reading  parliamentary  papers 
and  other  necessary  documents. 

EXTRACT  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  DR.  NEWCOME  TO 
CHARLES  JAMES  FOX. 

"You  judged  rightly  in  thinking  I  should  be  much  surprised 
by  the  information  you  were  so  obliging  to  give  me.  But  upon 
reflection  I  think  that  you  have  done  well  to  change  the  scene 
in  such  a  manner,  and  I  feel  myself  inclined  to  envy  you  the 
power  of  doing  it.  Application  like  yours  requires  some  inter- 
mission, and  you  are  the  only  person  with  whom  I  have  ever 
had  connection,  to  whom  I  could  say  this.  I  expect  that  you 
will  return  with  much  keenness  for  Greek  and  for  lines  and 
angles.  As  to  trigonometry,  it  is  a  matter  of  entire  indifference 
to  the  other  geometricians  of  the  college  (who  will  probably  con- 
tinue some  time  here),  whether  they  proceed  to  the  other  branch- 
es of  mathematics  immediately,  or  wait  a  term  or  two  longer. 
You  need  not,  therefore,  interrupt  your  amusements  by  severe 
studies,  for  it  is  wholly  unnecessary  to  take  a  step  onwards  with- 
out you,  and  therefore  we  shall  stop  until  we  have  the  pleasure 
of  your  company.  All  your  acquaintance  here  which  I  know, 
are  well,  but  not  much  happier  for  your  absence. '^ 

[On  his  return  from  Paris,  Mr.  Fox  went  by  his  own  choice 
for  another  year  to  Oxford.]  "  Charles  has  been  here,'^  says 
his  father  in  a  letter  to  Sir  George  Macartney,  dated  Kingsgate, 
July  25,  1765,  "but  is  now  at  Oxford  studying  very  hard,  after 
two  months  at  Paris,  which  he  relished  as  much  as  ever.  Such 
a  mixture  in  education  was  never  seen,  but  extraordinary  as  it  is, 
it  seems  likely  to  do  very  well." — "  Charles  is  at  Oxford,  apply- 
ing himself"  [says  his  mother  in  a  letter  of  the  14th  November, 

4* 


42  COKRESPONDENCE   OF  [JETAT.  IT. 

1765]  ;  "  next  spring  he  purposes  to  leave  it  entirely.  What  his 
future  schemes  are  I  don't  know/'  He  passed  the  greater  part 
of  one  whole  vacation  at  Oxford  with  his  friend  and  contemporary 
Dickson,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Down,  a  man  remarkable  for 
warmth  of  heart  and  gentleness  of  disposition,  as  well  as  for 
uncommon  agreeableness  of  manners  and  singular  advantages  of 
person.  They  studied  very  hard,  and  their  relaxation  consisted 
in  reading  to  one  another,  or  by  themselves,  all  the  early  dramatic 
poets  of  England ;  they  spent  their  evenings  for  that  purpose  in 
the  bookseller's  shop,  and  I  think  I  have  heard  Mr.  Fox  say, 
that  there  was  no  play  extant,  written  and  published  before  the 
Restoration,  that  he  had  not  read  attentively.  From  some  acci- 
dent or  another  he  and  Dickson  were  at  this  time  without  money, 
and  as  they  had  no  acquaintance  between  Oxford  and  London, 
likely  to  give  them  credit,  they  determined  without  a  penny  in 
their  pockets  to  walk  up  to  Holland  House  (full  56  miles)  without 
any  expense  of  conveyance,  lodging,  or  board.  The  day  was  sultry, 
and  when  they  had  got  to  Nettlebed,  between  Benson  and  Henley, 
Mr.  Fox  was  so  hot  and  fatigued  that  he  stopped  with  his  friend 
at  an  alehouse,  to  eat  some  bread  and  cheese  and  drink  some  ale. 
He  was  obliged  to  leave  his  gold  watch  in  pawn,  for  the  payment 
of  his  homely  fare,  with  the  landlord,  and  performed  the  rest  of 
his  journey  in  the  course  of  the  day.  On  his  arrival,  his  first 
exclamation  to  his  father,  who  was  taking  his  coffee,  was,  "You 
must  send  half  a  guinea  or  a  guinea,  without  loss  of  time,  to  the 
alehouse-keeper  at  Nettlebed,  to  redeem  the  gold  watch  you  gave 
me  some  years  ago,  and  which  I  have  left  in  pawn  there  for  a  pot 
of  porter. '^  He  always  plumed  himself  on  the  steadiness  and 
length  of  his  walks,  and  even  later  in  life,  and  when  he  was 
grown  corpulent,  not  unfrequently  decided  any  disputed  distance 
by  walking  five  or  ten  miles  himself,  in  full  confidence  that  the 
time  he  employed  in  it  was  a  sure  measure  of  the  distance. 

There  is  reason  to  suppose  that  some  months  and  even  years 
before  Mr.  Fox  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  Parliament,  his  success 
there  was  foretold  by  his  friends,  and  confidently  expected  by  his 
relations.     The  verses  of  Lord  Carlisle  on  his  companions  at 


17G6.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  43 

Eton  designate  Charles  Fox  to  act  the  most  conspicuous  part  in 
the  Senate  ;  and  in  the  foregoing  pages,  as  well  as  a  variety  of 
other  letters  of  my  family,  his  powers  as  an  orator  were  distinctly 
predicted.  Between  school  and  his  actual  appearance  on  the 
great  theatre  of  the  world,  other  and  less  agreeable  prognostics 
were  afforded  of  his  future  career.  His  mother  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  insensible  to  the  dangers  to  which  the  ardor  of  his 
mind  and  the  unbounded  indulgence  of  his  father  might  expose 
him.  Among  other  things  his  rivalry  with  young  William  Pitt, 
his  junior  by  ten  years,  seems  to  have  been  early  predicted.  The 
Duchess  of  Leinster  related  to  me  a  conversation,  at  which  she 
was  present,  between  her  sister.  Lady  Caroline,  and  Mr.  Fox 
(Lord  Holland).  Lady  Caroline,  in  expostulating  with  her  hus- 
band on  his  excessive  indulgence  to  his  children,  and  to  Charles 
in  particular,  added,  "  I  have  been  this  morning  with  Lady  Hester 
Pitt,  and  there  is  little  William  Pitt  not  eight  years  old,  and  really 
the  cleverest  child  I  ever  saw,  and  hroiiglit  up  so  strictly  and  so 
proper  in  his  behavior,  that,  marJc  my  ivords,  that  little  boy  will 
be  a  thorn  in  Charles's  side  as  long  as  he  lives."  [In  telling  this 
story,  the  Duchess  of  Leinster  naturally  called  the  persons  she 
mentioned  by  the  names  she  first  knew  them  by.  It  is  almost 
unnecessary,  therefore,  to  say,  that  when  Mr.  Pitt  was  eight  years 
old,  his  mother  had  been  many  years  Lady  Chatham,  and  Mr. 
and  Lady  Caroline  Fox,  Lord  and  Lady  Holland.] 

Such  predictions  are  no  doubt  often  made  by  parents,  who 
fancy  they  see  the  future  celebrity  and  importance  of  their 
children.  Ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred  the  greatness  of 
the  individual,  the  groundwork  of  all  the  anticipation  and  ap- 
prehension, is  not  realized.  But  when  such  predictions  turn 
out  true,  one  has  a  childish  pleasure  in  recording  them. 

[In  a  letter  to  Sir  George  Macartney,  dated  from  London, 
14th  of  March,  1766  (to  which  he  had  been  summoned  from 
Oxford  on  account  of  his  father's  illness),  Mr.  Fox  mentions  his 
having  been  present  at  the  debate  on  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  his  having  thought  the  Duke  of 
Grafton's  speech  the  best  he  had  ever  heard  there ;  but  the  in- 


44  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  17. 

teresting  part  of  the  letter  is  the  proof  it  affords  of  his  early 
intimacy  (he  was  then  only  seventeen)  with  Mr.  Burke.  Sir 
George  Macartney  had,  it  seems,  sent  him  a  copy  of  a  speech  he 
had  made  to  the  Empress  of  Russia.]  "I  think/'  says  he, 
"  your  speech  to  the  Czarina  one  of  the  prettiest  things  of  the 
kind  I  ever  saw.  I  did  not  observe  literally  your  commands 
about  it,  but  I  have  shown  it  to  very  few  people.  Mr.  Burke 
admires  it  vastly." 

[Writing  to  Sir  George  from  Holland  House  on  the  8d  of 
May,  he  says,  that]  ^'  His  father,  in  having  assigned  to  him,  in 
his  correspondence  with  Macartney,  the  province  of  politics,  has 
in  a  manner  condemned  him  to  silence;  for,  since  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act,  there  has  been  no  news  of  that  sort.  The 
Ministry  goes  on  just  as  it  did,  everybody  laughing  at  them  and 
holding  them  cheap ;  but,  according  to  the  fashionable  phrase, 
doing  justice  to  their  good  intentions."  [Such  was  the  language 
he  held  at  that  time  of  a  party  into  which  he  afterwards  infused 
so  much  spirit  and  vigor.] 

[In  a  letter  from  Lord  Holland  to  the  same,  of  the  30  th  of 
June,  he  expresses  himself  with  the  utmost  warmth  and  tender- 
ness towards  his  son.]  '^Charles  is  above  measure  kind  and 
attentive  to  me.  He  has  a  good  heart,  and  is  more  to  be  ad- 
mired for  that  than  for  his  head,  which  you  know  is  no  bad  one. 
I  am  very  happy  in  my  family,  and  that  may  well  atone  for  what 
I  have  to  complain  of  in  the  article  of  friends.' ' 

[Mr.  Fox  finally  left  Oxford  in  spring,  1766,  and  though  the 
following  account  of  the  two  succeeding  years  of  his  life  is 
nothing  more  than  a  dry  catalogue  of  dates  and  names,  it  may 
not  be  a  useless  preface  to  the  letters  and  to  the  remarks  of  Lord 
Holland  that  follow. 

On  the  23d  of  September,  1766,  Lord  and  Lady  Holland 
sailed  from  Kingsgate,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  for  Calais,  and  on 
the  6th  of  October  their  son  Charles,  who  had  gone  some  days 
before  on  a  visit  to  M.  de  Mortfontaines  at  Soissons,  met  them  at 
Lyons.  From  Lyons,  Lord  Holland,  Charles,  and  Lord  Ossory 
went  down  the  Rhone  to  Marseilles,  where  they  embarked  for 


1766.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  45 

Naples.  Lady  Holland,  her  two  other  sons,  and  Lady  Mary 
Fox,  wife  of  Stephen  Fox,  crossed  the  Alps,  and  joined  them  at 
Naples,  where  they  passed  the  Winter.  In  March,  1767,  they 
set  out  on  their  return  to  England,  and  towards  the  latter  end 
of  May  Lord  and  Lady  Holland  arrived  at  Holland  House. 
Charles,  who  had  made  occasional  excursions  during  their  route 
through  Italy,  left  them  at  Turin  on  the  26th  of  April,  and 
went  to  Genoa  to  meet  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  with  whom  and  Mr. 
Uvedale  Price  he  passed  the  summer.  Towards  the  end  of  Octo- 
ber Lord  and  Lady  Holland  set  off  again  to  the  continent,  and 
were  met  at  Paris  by  their  son  Charles.  He  soon  left  them  again, 
and  after  several  short  tours  in  the  south  of  France,  in  company 
with  Lord  Carlisle,  he  joined  them  at  Nice  before  the  middle  of 
December.  At  Nice  they  remained  till  April,  when  Lord  and 
Lady  Holland  returned  to  England,  and  Charles  went  back  to 
Italy.  According  to  the  plan  he  had  proposed  and  probably  exe- 
cuted, he  was  to  go  by  Genoa,  Lerici,  Pisa,  and  Sienna,  to  Rome ; 
it  appears  he  was  in  that  capital  when  the  Queen  of  the  two 
Sicilies  passed  through  Rome  on  her  way  to  Naples.  On  his 
return  home  in  company  with  Mr.  Uvedale  Price,  he  visited 
Voltaire  at  Ferney,  and  arrived  in  England  on  the  2d  of  August, 
In  the  following  September,  he  accompanied  his  brother  Stephen, 
who,  with  his  wife.  Lady  Mary,  and  Mr.  Dickson,  who  has  been 
before  mentioned,  made  an  excursion  of  three  weeks  through  the 
Austrian  Netherlands  and  Holland.  He  had  been  returned  for 
Midhurst  to  the  Parliament  that  met  on  the  10th  May,  1768, 
but  in  consequence  of  his  absence  from  England  he  did  not  take 
his  seat  during  the  first  session.]  At  Florence  he  saw  much  of 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  of  Mr.  Price,  and  of  Mr.  Crofts,  a  clergyman, 
who  was  a  good  Spanish  scholar,  and  then  travelling  with  Lord 
Fitzwilliam.  He  seems  by  his  letter,  dated  from  that  place  to 
his  friend  Richard  Fitzpatrick  (September  22d,  Florence)  to  have 
been  much  occupied  with  projects  of  acting  plays,  and  with  the 
study  of  Italian  literature.  Acting  plays  became  quite  a  passion 
with   him  during  that  and  the  ensuing  year.     His  sister-in-law 


46  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  18. 

(Lady  Mary  Fox,  then  recently  married)  and  her  brother,  Rich- 
ard Fitzpatrick,  no  doubt  partook  and  fomented  the  passion.  He 
was  at  Home,  when  the  Queen  o^Naples  was  married  (in  summer, 
1768).  He  travelled  with  Mr.  Uvedale  Price,  the  ingenious 
author  of  "The  Picturesque,"  and  then  an  Eton,  tennis,  and 
acting  acquaintance  of  his  own  age,  by  Terni  and  Loretto,  to 
Venice,  and  he  passed  Mantua  by  night,  and  joined  Lord  Fitz- 
william  at  Turin. 

Although  Mr.  Fox  at  this  period  of  his  life  entered  eagerly 
into  the  pursuit  of  pleasure,  he  seems  never  to  have  intermitted 
his  studies  entirely,  especially  those  of  the  modern  languages  of 
the  countries  in  which  he  was  travelling.  Even  in  his  amuse- 
ments his  active,  acute,  and  creative  mind  was  always  employed, 
and  his  judgment  and  taste  were  improved  by  observation  and 
exercise.  During  the  year  1767,  which  he  passed  abroad,  either 
with  travellers  of  his  own  age  or  with  his  father  and  mother  (who 
spent  part  of  their  time  at  Naples,  Nice,  and  Paris),  he  was 
assiduous  in  learning  the  languages  of  France  and  Italy,  enthu- 
siastic in  his  admiration  of  Italian  poetry,  and  fond  of  exercising 
his  ingenuity  in  French  composition.  His  letters  to  Richard 
Fitzpatrick  are  generally  in  the  latter  language,  and  many  pas- 
sages of  them  in  verse,  in  the  structure  of  which  he  seems  to 
have  been  particularly  careful  and  critical.  In  subsequent  let- 
ters he  often  refers  to  his  former  verses,  and  expresses  great 
anxiety  to  correct  any  false  rhyme  or  defective  prosody  which, 
on  recollection,  he  suspects  to  have  disfigured  his  versification. 
This  propensity  to  labor  at  excellence,  even  in  his  amusements, 
distinguished  him  throughout  life.  Not  only  would  he  turn  the 
verse,  in  every  jeu  d^ esprit  of  his  composition,  fifty  difi'erent 
ways,  but  at  every  little  diversion  or  employment — chess,  cards, 
carving  at  dinner — would  he  exercise  his  faculties  with  wonder- 
ful assiduity  and  attention  till  he  had  attained  the  degree  of 
perfection  he  aimed  at.  It  was  this  peculiarity  which  led  him, 
many  years  afterwards,  when  asked  how  he  contrived,  being  so 
corpulent,  to  pick  up  the  cut  balls  at  tennis  so  well,  to  answer, 


1767.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  47 

}3lajfullj,  "because  I  am  a  very  painstaking  man."^  So  also  on 
his  appointment  to  the  Secretaryship  of  State  in  1782,  piqued  at 
an  observation  on  his  bad  writing,  he  actually  took  a  writing- 
master  and  wrote  copies  like  a  schoolboy.  In  the  same  spirit, 
when  he  determined  on  living  in  the  country,  he  devoted  him- 
self to  the  practical  work  of  a  gardener;  and,  in  like  manner,  in 
order  to  qualify  himself  for  carving,  he  used  to  have  a  small 
book  of  instructions  of  that  art  at  table,  and  executed  the  pro- 
blems laid  down  in  it  by  imitating  on  the  real  joints  the  lines 
laid  down  in  the  engravings.  During  the  period  of  his  life  to 
which  these  extracts  and  notes  refer,  he  seems  to  have  been  very 
earnestly  occupied  with  private  theatricals.  His  letters  are  full 
of  them,  and  some  passages  at  least  may  be  worth  preserving  as 
indications  of  the  earnestness  with  which  he  engaged  in  any  pur- 
suit he  undertook.  My  father  had,  probably  in  a  great  measure 
at  the  instigation  of  his  brother  Charles,  established  private  thea- 
tricals in  his  country  house  at  Winterslow,  near  Salisbury,  and 
his  wife.  Lady  Mary  (my  mother),  and  her  brother  Fitzpatrick 
were  among  the  performers.  Charles  Fox  and  Richard  Fitz- 
patrick were  nearly  equal  in  tragedy,  and  they  used  to  exchange 
characters  and  act  alternately  the  principal  parts.  In  general, 
Mr.  Fox  was  preferred  in  tragedy;  but  General  Fitzpatrick  was 
supposed  yet  more  decidedly  to  have  the  superiority  in  genteel 
comedy.  This  passion  for  acting  (for  it  was  with  him  not  less 
earnest  than  a  passion),  which  seems  to  have  begun  as  early  as 
1765,  lasted  till  1773.  It  gave  him,  as  I  have  before  observed, 
a  great  knowledge  of  plays  (prodigious  numbers  of  which  he  had 
read  with  great  delight  and  singular  attention),  and  it  was  often 
remarked  that  his  quotations  and  allusions  in  his  speeches  from 
passages  not  commonly  known  in  our  dramatic  authors,  both 
serious  and  comic,  were  very  frequent  and  very  happy.  Per- 
haps his  practice  of  acting  was  not  less  useful  to  him  as  an  ori.\- 

'  Cut  balls  are  balls  which  pass  just  over  the  net,  and  do  not  rise  higu 
above  the  floor  of  the  tennis-court.     It  was  Lord  Holland  who  asked  Mr. 
Fox  this  question.     The  answer  is  only  valuable  as  showing  that  in  no 
ax't  is  excellence  attained  without  labor. — J.  R. 


48  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  18. 

tor  in  the  modulation  of  his  voice.  His  delivery  was  indeed  too 
natural  and  too  rapid  to  convey  to  a  common  observer  any 
appearance  of  art.  Yet  the  power  of  expressing  passion  by  the 
tones  of  his  voice  had  no  doubt  been  brought  to  perfection  by 
his  exertions  on  the  stage.  For,  notwithstanding  some  unpleas- 
ing  shrillness,  unharmonious  cadences,  and  occasional  screams 
beyond  the  scope  of  his  organ,  he  possessed  the  faculty  of  touch- 
ing the  heart  by  his  voice  without  deviating  into  anything  like 
theatrical  display,  beyond  any  orator  I  ever  heard  in  public.  His 
deep  tones,  which  occurred  very  rarely,  and  very  shortly,  and 
only  in  solemn  appeals  to  the  feelings  and  justice  of  his  audience, 
had  the  most  thrilling  effect,  and  could  scarcely  have  been  at- 
tained by  any  one  who  had  not  disciplined  his  voice  at  some 
period  of  his  life  to  such  a  purpose  by  the  recital  of  sublime  or 
impassioned  passages  of  poetry.  It  was  indeed,  if  not  a  pecu- 
liar, a  striking  feature  in  Mr.  Fox's  oratory,  that  it  bore  along 
with  it,  as  it  flowed  naturally  from  him,  a  great  variety  of  man- 
ner as  well  as  matter. 

Not  only  the  extent  of  his  learning,  and  the  great  resources  of 
his  mind,  but  the  experience  and  observation  with  which  inter- 
course with  every  class  of  society  and  interest  in  every  pursuit 
and  amusement  in  life  had  furnished  him,  enforced  and  embel- 
lished his  reasoning,  assisted,  and,  above  all,  enlivened  his  illus- 
trations. 

Puring  the  whole  of  the  first  period  of  Mr.  Fox's  life,  and  up 
to  ,fche  time  of  his  being  returned  to  Parliament,  there  are  few 
trijices  in  his  correspondence  of  any  very  strong  opinion  in  poli- 
ti'is,  and  what  there  are  show  his  personal  affection  to  his  father 
ai^  others,  engaged  or  engaging  in  those  pursuits,  rather  than 
ar^y  formed  judgment  upon  public  matters.  He  seems  to  have 
sympathized  with  his  father  in  his  resentment  against  the  Bed- 
fprds  and  Mr.  Rigby,  and,  as  his  father's  animosity  to  Lord 
Chatham  abated  (which  it  did  on  the  dismissal  of  the  first  Rock- 
ingham administration),  his  son's  prejudices  against  him  seem 
,  also  to  have  softened.  In  writing  to  his  younger  friends,  he 
expresses  an  eagerness  and  an  earnestness  about  their  obtaining 


1767.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  49 

peerages,  ribbons^  and  other  baubles,  which,  if  he  had  been 
reminded  of  at  hiter  periods  of  his  life,  would  have  made  him 
either  smile  or  blush.  He  says  somewhere  that  the  green  rib- 
bon for  his  friend,  Lord  Carlisle,  before  he  was  well  of  age,  was 
one  of  the  best  things  done  for  this  great  while;  and  he  confesses 
that  an  English  peerage  for  Lord  Ossory  would  almost  reconcile 
him  to  the  admission  to  office  of  the  Bedford  party,  which,  for 
other  filial,  if  not  public  reasons,  he  earnestly  deprecates.  There 
are  also  letters  relating  to  elections  at  Stockbridge  and  elsewhere, 
in  which  much  personal  interest  for  the  candidates,  but  little  or 
no  anxiety  about  public  affairs,  is  expressed.  , 

[His  correspondence  preserved  during  this  period  illustrates 
these  remarks.] 

C.  J.  FOX  TO  MR.  CRAWFORD.' 

"Naples,  Ibth  January,  1767. 
^'Dear  Fish: — 

"You  said  you  would  write  to  me  if  you  could  find  anything 
I  should  like  to  hear.  In  your  last  to  Ste,  you  say  the  Bedfords 
have  been  cruelly  used;  did  not  you  think  I  should  be  glad  to 
hear  that?  But  I  am  sadly  afraid  you  are  imposed  upon,  and 
they  have  not  been  so  ill  used  as  I  always  wish  them  to  be.  Let 
them  feel  how  sharper  than  a  serpent's  tooth  it  is  to  have  a 
thankless  friend.  Notwithstanding  which,  you  say  I  am  tho- 
roughly convinced  Lord  Chatham  was  sincere  in  his  negotiation, 
that  is  to  say,  he  meant  to  buy  them  upon  reasonable  terms,  and 
that  the  exorbitancy  of  those  they  proposed  was  what  hindered 
it  taking  place.      All  the  letters  we  have  had,  mention  those 

1  In  Madame  du  DeflPand's  correspondence  with  Horace  Walpole  is  to 
be  found  some  account  of  INIr.  Crawford's  conversation  and  manners  as  a 
young  man.  He  seems  to  have  been  very  affected.  Lord  Holland  used 
to  relate  that  on  some  occasion  Lord  Egremont  hearing  at  a  dinner  party 
of  the  death  of  a  friend,  burst  into  tears,  and  was  obliged  to  leave  the 
room.  While  every  one  was  pitying  him,  Mr.  Crawford  said  testily,  "If 
/  hear  of  the  death  of  a  friend,  /  burst  into  tears,  and  if  /  am  overcome, 
/leave  the  room." — J.  R. 

VOL.  I.— 5 


50  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  18. 

terms  as  such ;  but  I  wish  your  account  may  be  true,  for  it  is 
more  mortifying  to  be  refused  a  guinea  than  1000^.  They  are 
now,  I  understand,  joined  with  Lord  Rockingham,  <fec.,  the  only 
party  whom  they  have  not  ah-eady  tried  at.  Lord  Bute,  the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  and  Lord  Chatham,  have  sent  them  empty 
away ',  and,  I  hope  and  believe,  if  the  others  ever  come  in,  they 
will  serve  them  in  the  same  manner.  They  asked,  we  hear, 
three  peerages;  one  of  them,  I  suppose,  was  for  Lord  Ossory, 
and  this  would  go  near  to  make  one  sorry  they  were  refused,  if  I 
did  not  think  that  he  would  be  sure  of  one  some  time  or  other, 
and  that  having  it  immediately  would  be  no  great  advantage  to 
him..  I  know  few  men  more  prejudiced  than  he  is  in  party  mat- 
ters, and  therefore  I  dare  say  that  what  he  called  forwardness  in 
Burke  last  year,  he  will  now  call  spirit.  Do  you  know  whether 
there  was  anything  to  be  done  for  Bunbury,  if  the  negotiation 
had  taken  place  ?  But  I  am  at  too  great  a  distance  to  ask  ques- 
tions. In  all  the  news  we  have  had,  I  have  not  heard  Lord 
Temple  or  G.  Grenville  mentioned.  I  hope  there  are  no  nego- 
tiations on  foot  with  them. 

'^As  for  Stockbridge,  you  are  positively  sure  for  yourself,  but 
I  cannot  say  I  see  any  likelihood  of  choosing  two;  you  must  be 
the  best  judge  yourself  when  you  are  there.  If  you  should 
think  there  is  any  chance  for  two.  Macartney  or  my  brother  must 
be  the  other;  but  we  think  there  is  so  little  chance  of  this,  that 
we  hardly  think  it  worth  writing  about. 

^' There  is  nothing,  my  dear  Crawford,  that  I  can  tell  you  from 
this  place  interesting  to  you,  except  that  we  are  all  well,  and  lead 
a  very  pleasant  life  here.  When  I  say  we  are  all  well,  you  un- 
derstand I  do  not  mean  that  my  father  is  in  as  perfect  health  as 
we  could  wish  him,  but  really  I  think  him  considerably  better 
than  when  he  left  England." 


176T.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  51 

LORD  HOLLAND  TO  C.  J.  FOX. 

^^July  24,  1767. 
'^  Dear  Charles  : — 

"I  hope  I  shall  not  mind  it,  but  your  advice  has  been  followed 
with  as  bad  success  as  possible.  It  is  my  opinion,  Lord  B.'s^ 
application  did  more  harm  than  good,  and,  whilst  he  is  cried  out 
upon  for  doing  everything  at  Court,  he  can  do  nothing.  He  has 
not  seen  the  King  in  private  these  two  years  f  and  I,  who  to  my 
cost  have  already  once  made  his  Majesty  an  exception,  do  not  do 
so  any  more;  but  I  believe  long  absence  has  had  its  usual  effect. 
But  this  is  entre  nous.  I  was  at  Court  yesterday  for  the  first, 
and,  I  believe,  last  time.  I  had  as  much  to  say  as  any  man  ever 
had,  and  said  it.  I  saw  obstinate,  determined  denial,  without 
any  reason  given ;  nor  had  I  any  occasion  to  follow  your  advice, 
to  tahe  a  shuffling  answer  for  a  denial,  for  I  was  not  flattered 
even  by  a  shuffling,  promising  answer,  but  told  it  would  be  very 
inconvenient  to  do  it  now,  without  being  told  why  (and  the  Duke 
of  Grafton  says  he  does  not  know  of  one  promise,  nor  does  he 
think  it  unreasonable),  or  when  there  would  come  a  time  when 
it  might  not  be  inconvenient. 

"  'Of  all  court  service  know  the  common  lot, 
To-claj  'tis  done,  to-morrow  'tis  forgot.' 

Don't  ever,  Charles,  make  any  exception,  or  trust  as  I  did. 
Well !  I  may  thank  myself,  and  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  forget 
it.  I  trust  I  shall,  for,  after  all,  what  does  it  signify?  But  my 
spirits  are  sometimes  low,  and  then  I  shall  fancy  this  is  the  rea- 
son, whereas,  if  I  had  not  this,  they  would  be  as  often  low,  and 
I  must  find  some  other.  July  28. — I  have  given  Lord  Carlisle 
a  packet  for  you,  which  contains  all  my  fugitive  pieces;  when 

J  Bute. 

2  This  remark  from  a  man  so  well  informed  as  Lord  Holland  confirms 
what  the  King  himself  told  his  son  the  Duke  of  York. — See  Bedford  Cor- 
respondence, vol.  iii. 


52  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [.ETAT.  18. 

you  come  to  Geneva,  as  you  will  do  one  day  or  another,  there  is 
a  pretty  large  packet  of  them,  which  is  sealed  up,  and  which 
Mr.  Gaussion  is  to  deliver  only  to  you. 

"Lord  March,  Lord  Carlisle,  and  G.  Selwyn  set  out  the  latter 
end  of  this  week.  Lord  Carlisle  sa7/s  he  shall  stay  but  a  fortnight 
at  Paris,  where  he  expects  a  letter  from  you,  and  then  go  directly 
to  you.  Jack  Nicol  sets  out  to-day  for  Spain.  He  gave  me 
before  he  went  your  French  verses,  which  I  wonder  you  never 
told  me  of,  as  they  are  excessively  good — very  fine,  Dr.  Camp- 
bell says,  and  Sir  George  Macartney  3  Mr.  Selwyn  and  Lord 
Carlisle  admire  them  extremely.  The  latter  expresses  his  sur- 
prise (I  think  not  entirely  without  anger)  that  you  never  showed 
them  to  him.  Mr.  Upton  is  assisting  his  friend  Lord  Thanet's 
marriage  at  Grantham.  She  is  very  handsome,  and  the  settle- 
ments he  makes  (where  they  told  him  they  would  ask  none)  are 
immensely  great. ^  To  morrow  I  go  to  Winterslow.  Sir  George 
Macartney  will  come  on  Sunday.  By  that  time  Upton,  I  fancy, 
will  be  at  leisure  to  come  to  us  too.  You  may  be  sure  you  shall 
have  a  letter  from  thence.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  will  tell  you  all  the 
politics.  When  he  comes  to  the  meeting  between  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  and  Lord  Rockingham,  and  their  entirely  breaking  and 
separating,  you  will  expect,  may-be,  as  I  did,  that  he  would 
come  into  adrwinhtratiGn  cum  suis,  but  no.  The  Duke  of  Graf- 
ton IB  forced y  and  if  he  has  a  grain  of  spirit  must  go  on,  and  be- 
lieve me,  Charles,  if  he  does,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  whatever. 
Lord  Chatham,  I  hear,  is  worse,  who  was  bad  enough  before,  and 
let  me  assure  you,  in  spite  of  all  newspapers.  Lord  Bute  has 
nothing  to  do.  It  is  generally  thought  the  Duke  of  Bedford  will 
'grow  stone  blind.  Bigby  was  expressing  his  great  concern,  when 
a  friend  of  yours  said,  it  would  give  him  more  if  his  G-race  opened 
his  eyes.  Well !  If  he  is  blind,  there  are  people  accustomed 
enough  to  see  for  him. 

"All  my  things  are  come  from  Naples.     I  shall  make  Kings- 

^  Sackville,  eighth  earl  of  Thanet,  married  on  the  30th  August,  1767, 
Mary,  only  daughter  of  Lord  Jolin  Sackville. 


1767.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  53 

gate  very  pretty  for  you,  and  have  almost  fixed  upon  a  plan  for 

a  new  house,  where  I  hope  you  will  spend  many  happy  hours 

after  I  am  dead  and  gone.    I  hope  to  spend  a  few  with  you  soon, 

and  upon  my  word,  I  think  of  none,  with  anything  like  pleasure, 

but  those  I  love,  and  you  most  sincerely. 

"Adieu. 

"Yours  ever  most  affectionately, 

"HOLLAND." 

Although  the  letter  given  above  relates  to  the  feelings  of  Lord 
Holland  rather  than  to  those  of  his  son  Charles,  and  although  it 
exhibits  a  lamentable  picture  of  the  declining  years  of  a  states- 
man, who,  notwithstanding  his  natural  good  sense  and  affectionate 
disposition,  had  the  folly  to  set  his  heart  upon  such  foolish  and 
unworthy  objects  as  mere  Court  favor  and  empty  titles,  I  have 
yet  transcribed  it  in  these  memorials  of  Mr.  Fox^s  youth,  be- 
cause it  contrasts  strongly  the  petty  and  miserable  objects,  which 
in  the  outset  of  life  he  was  taught  by  his  parents,  associates,  and 
situation  to  value,  with  those  which  his  own  vigorous  mind, 
better  experience,  and  enlarged  benevolence,  in  his  riper  years, 
preferred  and  determined  steadily  and  disinterestedly  to  pursue. 

It  is  indeed  strange  that  Lord  Holland  should  have  felt,  and 
still  more  that  he  should  have  inspired  such  a  mind  as  his  son's 
with  so  earnest  a  desire  to  convert  his  dignity  of  Baron  to  that 
of  Earl,  for  I  suspect  it  is  the  disappointment  of  such  despicable 
ambition  to  which  the  early  part  of  his  letter  alludes.  It  shows, 
however,  in  other  parts,  some  better  and  more  amiable  feelings. 
It  expresses  unaffectedly  his  real  tenderness  for  his  son,  and  dis- 
plays the  easy  confidential  footing  on  which  they  lived  together, 
and  the  high  opinion,  indicated  by  the  unreserved  expression  of 
bis  inmost  feelings,  which  he  entertained  of  the  judgment  of 

Charles. 

5* 


54  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  18. 

C.  J.  FOX  TO  SIR  GEORGE  MACARTNEY. 

*'  Florence,  Qth  Auguat,  1767. 
"  Dear  Macartney  : — 

^'  By  a  letter  I  had  from  my  motlier  yesterday,  I  heard  of 
your  return  to  England.  I  was  sitting  down  this  morning  to 
write  to  you,  when  they  brought  me  yours  of  the  21st  July. 
You  cannot  imagine  how  much  obliged  to  you  I  am  for  thinking 
of  me  so  soon,  at  a  time  when  you  most  undoubtedly  have  so 
much  occupation  of  every  kind.  I  should  have  written  long 
ago,  but  ever  since  Mr.  Stanley's  appointment  we  were  in  con- 
tinual expectation  of  your  return,  and  even  after  Mr.  Stanley's 
being  made  cofferer  we  were  in  total  ignorance  whether  you  con- 
tinued at  Petersburg  or  not.  You  will  have  been  at  Winterslow 
before  you  receive  this,  therefore  I  will  say  nothing  of  Lady 
Mar}",  but  that,  in  my  opinion,  there  is  not  another  woman  in 
England  so  capable  of  making  my  brother,  or  indeed  any  man 
happy,  as  she  is.  When  you  know  her  you  will  be  charmed 
with  her.  What  you  say  of  my  father's  health  must  give  all 
his  friends  the  greatest  satisfaction,  for  any  one  who  has  been 
absent  for  three  years  must  undoubtedly  be  much  mere  capable  of 
judging  of  his  looks  than  we  who  have  seen  him  constantly :  for 
my  part,  I  am  fully  convinced  that  he  owes  his  present  good 
state  of  health  to  the  climate  of  Naples,^  and  therefore  hope  he 
will  not  think  of  passing  the  next  winter  in  England,  though  I 
know  that  a  long  journey,  both  to  him  and  my  mother,  is  a  very 
disagreeable  circumstance.  I  am  very  much  pleased,  though  not 
at  all  surprised,  at  your  manner  of  speaking  of  Lord  Carlisle, 
and  if  you  should  ever  be  more  acquainted  with  him  you  will 
find  he  answers  in  every  respect  to  the  good  opinion  you  have 
conceived  of  him.  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  Mr.  Sel- 
wyn,  though  it  is  so  long  since  he  has  said  he  would  write  by 

'  Lord  Holland  inscribed  on  some  votive  tablet  in  his  garden  at  this 
time,  Ob  salutem  in  Italia  recuperatam. — J.  R. 


1767.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  55 

the  next  post,  that  I  almost  despair  of  his  writing  at  all.  As 
for  politics,  I  am  very  little  curious  about  them,  for  almost 
everything  I  hear  at  this  distance  seems  unintelligible.  I  am 
ill-natured  enough  to  be  very  sorry  whenever  I  hear  there  is  any 
chance  of  the  Bedfords  being  pleased,  and  that  is  all  I  care 
about.  In  the  last  letter  I  received  from  you,  before  that  I 
have  now  before  me,  you  were  so  good  as  to  inquire  what  studies 
I  had  pursued  at  Oxford.  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  have  read  a 
great  deal  since  you  left  England,  and  have  learnt  nothing.  I 
employed  almost  my  whole  time  at  Oxford  in  the  mathematical 
and  classical  knowledge,  but  more  particularly  in  the  latter,  so 
that  I  understand  Latin  and  Greek  tolerably  well.  I  am  totally 
ignorant  in  every  part  of  useful  knowledge.  I  am  more  con- 
vinced every  day  how  little  advantage  there  is  in  being  what  at 
school  and  the  university  is  called  a  good  scholar:  one  receives 
a  good  deal  of  amusement  from  it,  but  that  is  all.  At  present  I 
read  nothing  but  Italian,  which  I  am  immoderately  fond  of,  par- 
ticularly of  the  poetry.  You,  who  understand  Italian  so  well 
yourself,  will  not  at  all  wonder  at  this.  As  to  French,  I  am  far 
from  being  so  thorough  a  master  of  it  as  I  could  wish,  but  I 
know  so  much  of  it  that  I  could  perfect  myself  in  it  at  any  time 
with  very  little  trouble,  especially  if  I  pass  three  or  four  months 
in  France.  I  should  not  run  on  in  this  manner  about  myself  if 
I  were  not  convinced  that  you  did  not  mean  a  mere  compliment 
when  you  desired  me  to  give  some  account  of  myself,  but  that 
you  are  really  so  good  as  to  interest  yourself  in  what  concerns 
me.  Believe  me,  my  dear  Macartney,  your  being  in  England, 
besides  the  pleasure  I  shall  have  from  your  company,  will  be  of 
infinite  service  to  me.  I  want  such  an  example  as  yours  to 
make  me  conquer  my  natural  idleness,  of  which  Lady  Holland 
will  tell  you  wonders.  Indeed,  I  am  afraid  it  will  in  the  end 
get  the  better  of  what  little  ambition  I  have,  and  that  I  never 
shall  be  anything  but  a  lounging  fellow.  As  to  you,  you  will 
be  entering  next  year  into  a  way  of  life  quite  new  to  you,  and  I 
make  no  doubt  but  your  debut  in  the  House  of  Commons  will  be 
as  brilliant   as  it   was  at    Petersburg,  which  last  everybody's 


56  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  18. 

mouth  was  full  of  about  a  year  ago,  though  by  this  time  it  is 
probably  forgotten,  as  everything  in  England  is,  on  account  of 
the  quick  succession  of  events  which  are  continually  arising  to 
direct  the  public  attention.  Adieu,  dear  Macartney;  let  me 
have  the  continuance  of  your  friendship,  for  there  is  nothing  in 
the  world  I  set  a  more  invaluable  price  upon." 

C.  J.  FOX  TO  RICHARD  FITZPATRICK. 

"  Florence,  >S'e7J^em5er  22,  17G7. 
'^  Dear  Richard  : — 

"  I  do  not  know  how  it  happened,  but  your  letter  of  July  21 
did  not  come  to  me  till  about  a  fortnight  ago.  You  will  very 
probably  have  left  Caen^  long  before  this  reaches  you;  if  so,  I 
shall  lose  a  little  of  my  time,  and  there  is  no  harm  in  that.  I 
fancy  we  may  defer  for  some  time  the  thoughts  of  our  St.  Al- 
ban's*^  suppers.  I  shall  certainly  not  be  in  England  before  next 
summer,  if  then ;  and  as  for  Carlisle,  I  suppose  he  will  then  be 
setting  out  for  his  travels,  if  he  goes  on  in  the  drawling  way  he 
has  done  hitherto.  You  will  have  heard,  to  be  sure,  of  his 
green  ribbon,  and  have  been  as  much  pleased  with  it  as  I  was. 
/  tJiinh  it  one  of  the  best  things  that  has  heen  done  this  great 
while.  Were  you  in  England  when  his  ^  Spendthrift'^  came 
out?  No.  It  was,  in  my  opinion,  with  all  due  respect  to 
Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  much  the  best  that  appeared.  I  forgot  what 
the  seventeenth  number  was  that  you  commend  so. 

^'  Your  letter  has  put  me  in  mind  of  acting,  and  made  me 
extremely  eager  for  some  more  plays,  though,  to  tell  you  the 
truth,  the  last  time  I  acted  I  fell  very  short  of  my  own  expecta- 
tions. However,  my  spirit  is  not  entirely  broken,  but  I  will  avoid 
appearing  in  any  very  conspicuous  part,  if  possible.  Your  sister 
is  a  very  good  actress.     Lady  Sarah's  fame  is  well  known.     Ste* 

'  Fitzpatrick  was  en  pension  at  that  town,  where  he  learnt  French  and 
attended  the  Military  Academy. — V.  H. 

2  The  tavern,  T  conclude,  in  St.  Alban's-street.— V.  H. 
^  Probably  some  periodical  paper  of  1767. 
^  Stephen  Fox,  his  brother. 


1767.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  57 

acted  extremely  well  in  the  comedy  j  in  tlie  tragedy,  lie  did  not 
know  his  part.     Carlisle  is  not  an  excellent  actor,  but  will  make 
a  very  useful  one.     Dickson  acted  the  small  part  he  had  in  the 
tragedy  very  ill,  chiefly,  I  believe,  from  carelessness.     He  acted 
one  or  two  scenes  in  the  comedy  inimitably,  and  all  well.     He 
will  be  of  great  use  to  us.     Peter  Brodie  is  the  best  manager 
prompter  in  the  world.    "We  want  another  actor  or  two,  but  much 
more  another  actress.     There  are  very  few  comedies  that  do  not 
require  above  two  women.     Lady  Mary's  grossesse  and  Salisbury 
election  so  entirely  engross  all  my  brother's  thoughts  at  present, 
that  he  does  not  so  much  as  mention  acting  in  any  one  of  his 
letters,  but  I  hope  his  enthusiasm  (for  such  it  was  last  year)  will 
return.     Indeed  it  will  be  very  absurd  if  he  has  built  a  theatre 
for  nothing.     You  may  tell  my  brother  I  can  get  two  actors  for 
him,  one  goodish,  and  one  baddish;  I  have  not  engaged  them, 
but  I  know  I  can  have  them.     I  have  so  bad  a  taste  as  to  differ 
from  you  very  much  about  the  French  stage.    I  allow  the  French 
actors  to  be  much  better  than   ours,  but  I  think  our  plays  are 
infinitely  better.    Here  at  Florence  the  people  are  clever  at  every 
other  species  of  writing  imaginable  but  the  dramatic.     All  Italian 
plays  are  imitations  either  of  Greek,  Latin,  or  French  ones,  but 
if  the  Italians  are  in  this  respect  inferior  to  the  French,  English, 
&c.,  they  are  fully  revenged  in  every  other.       For  God's   sake 
learn  Italian  as  fast  as  you  can,  if  it  be  only  to  read  Ariosto. 
There  is  more  good  poetry  in  Italian  than  in  all  other  languages 
that  I  understand  put  together.     In  prose,  too,  it  is  a  very  fine 
language.     Make  haste  and  read  all  these  things,  that  you  may 
be  fit  to  talk  to  Christians.    Fitzwilliam  is  here,  and,  as  you  may 
imagine,  we  live  a  great  deal  together.      Adieu,  dear  Richard  3 
my  letter  is  rather  too  long.'^ 


58  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  19. 

C.  J.  FOX  TO  RICHARD  FITZPATRICK. 

"Nice,  23c?  January,  17G8. 
^^  Dear  Richard  : — 

"  When  I  arrived  at  this  place  about  six  weeks  ago,  I  found  a 
letter  from  you.  You  cannot  think  how  glad  I  am  you  think  of 
acting,  for  I  was  afraid  it  would  have  been  put  off  this  year,  and 
in  that  case  it  would  probably  have  been  entirely  dropped.  My 
modest  paragraph,  as  you  call  it,  was  not  affectation,  for  I  really 
did  not  act  near  as  well  as  I  expected,  but  my  expectations,  it 
must  be  confessed,  were  very  high.  If  you  think  of  acting  in 
August  or  September,  you  may  count  upon  me,  as  I  intend  to  be 
in  England  by  the  very  beginning  of  August.  The  two  actors 
I  mentioned  were  Price*  and  Fitzwilliam.  The  former  has  ap- 
peared with  great  success,  in  the  part  of  Gloucester,  in  Jane 
Shore,^  though  in  Alonzo,  in  the  ^Revenge,'  he  lost  much  of  the 
credit  he  had  gained.  He  is  really  an  agreeable  man,  and  I  think 
you  would  like  him  extremely.  You  will  oblige  me  very  much 
if  you  will  put  him  up  at  Almack's  till  he  is  chosen,  without 
minding  how  many  black  balls  he  has.  Pray  do  not  blackball 
him  yourself.  He  is  now  in  Italy,  and  returns  to  England  in 
summer,  therefore  I  should  be  glad  he  were  chosen  this  winter. 
As  to  Fitzwilliam,  he  says  he  should  like  to  act,  but  I  do  not 
believe  he  will,  and  I  think  he  would  make  a  bad  actor.  Carlisle 
is  gone  to  Turin  to  meet  his  ribbon.  Kildare,  who  has  been 
upon  a  visit  to  us,  is  gone  with  him,  so  we  are  now  quite  alone. 
We  live  a  small  distance  from  Nice,  which  is  the  dullest  town  in 
the  world.  Je  travaille  toujours  le  matin,  and  in  the  evening, 
read,  lounge,  play  at  chess,  and  talk.  I  leave  this  place  in  April, 
and  go  somewhere  to  meet  Carlisle.  I  made  some  verses  about  a 
year  ago,  just  after  you  left  England,  but  I  do  not  send  them  as 
my  brother  has  them,  and  may  show  you  them  if  you  want  to  see 
them.     Have  you  made  anything  in  that  way  ?     Carlisle  has 

'  TJvedale  Price. 


1768.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  59 

made  two  epitaphs  on  Eose  which  please  me  extremely.    AclieUj 
my  dear  Richard. 

*^  P.  S.  I  hear  the  stage  in  England  is  worse  than  ever.  Re- 
member me  to  your  brother.  I  hope  the  report  of  his  being  to 
be  made  a  peer  is  true." 


MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

"  From  the  time  that  I  left  you,  dear  Richard,  at  Ahuacks, 
(For  which  I  have  no  rhyme  but  the  okl  one  of  Calmucks, ) 
I  slept  while  I  came  a  confounded  slow  pace, 
Till  at  last  I  arrived  about  eight  at  this  place. 
From  hence  we  are  now  just  about  to  embark, 
And  hope  to  reach  Calais  before  it  is  dark ; 
I  begin,  I  can  tell  you,  already  to  curse 
The  engagements  I  made  to  write  always  in  verse. 
For  the  Muses  are  coy,  and  the  more  that  I  woo  'em 
The  more  difficult  'tis,  as  I  find,  to  get  to  'em ; 
They  are  whimsical  women,  but  spite  of  their  malice 
I  will  send  you  a  letter  to-morrow  from  Calais." 


EXTRxVCT  OF  A  LETTER   FROM   MR.  UVEDALE  PRICE  TO  MR. 
ROGERS,  IN  SEPTEMBER,  1814. 

"  My  stay  at  Geneva  was  short.  I  was  then  travelling  with 
Charles  Fox,  who  wrote  to  Yoltaire  to  beg  he  would  allow  us  to 
come.  He  very  civilly  answered,  the  name  of  Fox  was  sufficient, 
though  he  received  hardly  any  visitors,  et  que  nous  venions  pour 
I'interrcr.  He  did  not  ask  us  to  dine  with  him,  but  conversed  a 
short  time,  walking  backward  and  forward  in  his  garden,  gave  us 
some  chocolate,  and  dismissed  us.  I  am  sorry  to  give  you  so  mea- 
gre an  account,  but  all  I  can  recollect  of  his  conversation,  and 
that  a  mere  nothing,  is  that,  after  giving  us  a  list  of  some  of  his 
works,  which  he  thought  might  open  our  minds,  and  free  them 
from  any  religious  prejudices,  he  said,  '  voila  des  livres  dont  il 
faut  se  munir.'  " 


60  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [.ETAT.  19. 


BOOK   THE    SECOND. 

1768. 

[For  the  second  of  the  periods  into  which  these  collections 
are  divided,  some  of  the  materials  are  derived  from  the  manu- 
script memoirs  and  journals  of  Horace  "Walpole.  These  papers,] 
"  the  property  of  Lord  "VValdegrave,  were  lent  to  me,"  says  Lord 
Holland,  ^^and  have  been  long  in  my  possession.  I  copy,  as 
permitted  by  Lord  Waldegrave,  all  relating  to  Mr.  Charles  Fox 
from  them."  The  memoirs  extend  through  the  years  1768, 
1769  [1770  and  1771,  after  which  the  manuscript  collections  of 
Mr.  Walpole  are  continued  under  the  title  of  journals]. 

[Extracts  from  the  Walpole  papers  have  generally  the  initials 
'^  H.  W."  at  the  foot  of  each  paragraph,  and  where  the  words 
are  copied  verbatim  they  are  printed  within  inverted  commas. 
Extracts  from  other  journals  and  correspondence,  and  observa- 
tions by  Lord  Holland,  have  no  distinctive  marks  annexed  to 
them.  The  additions  of  Mr.  Allen  are,  as  usual,  within  brack- 
ets.] 

[Lord  Holland  had  copied  into  his  original  collections  every 
syllable  written  by  Horace  Walpole,  after  the  commencement  of 
1768,  that  related  to  his  uncle,  or  to  his  grandfather,  and 
wherever  he  found  charges  and  insinuations  against  them,  which, 
in  his  opinion,  were  malignant  and  unfounded,  he  has  subjoined 
such  answers  as  his  knowledge  of  the  transactions  enabled  him  to 
'give.  It  has  been  thought  unnecessary  to  include  in  the  present 
collection  the  whole  of  these  passages.  It  is  impossible  not  to  be 
sensible  of  the  valuable  services  which  Mr.  Walpole's  sprightly 
correspondence  and  labored  memoirs  have  rendered  to  the  history 


1768.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  61 

of  the  last  century,  both  in  respect  to  the  manners  of  the  age 
and  to  the  political  intrigues  of  the  times.  But  no  man  is  less 
to  be  trusted  than  Mr.  Walpole,  when  he  either  praises  a  friend 
or  abuses  an  enemy.  He  was  a  gossip,  credulous  and  spiteful. 
He  relates  every  story  he  hears,  and,  without  examining  into  its 
truth,  explains  it  as  best  suits  his  prejudices  of  the  moment. 
With  the  first  Lord  Holland,  as  the  last  eminent  survivor  of 
those  who  had  adhered  to  his  father,  he  was  for  many  years  on 
the  most  intimate  and  friendly  terms.  But  having  betrayed,  as 
he  relates  and  justifies  in  his  published  memoirs,  the  confidence 
reposed  in  him  by  Mr.  Fox  at  a  very  important  crisis,  their  con- 
fidential intercourse  had  ceased,  and  it  is  manifest  that,  being  no 
longer  trusted  by  him,  he  is  consequently  often  mistaken  in  the 
motives  he  assigns  for  his  conduct.  In  October,  1762,  Mr.  Fox 
had  been  prevailed  upon  to  undertake  the  defence  of  the  peace 
with  France,  for  which  Mr.  Grenville  was  thought  inadequate ; 
and,  in  the  execution  of  that  task,  he  had  recommended  and  pur- 
sued a  system  of  intimidation,  if  not  persecution,  alike  repug- 
nant to  his  own  nature  and  to  the  practice  of  the  English  govern- 
ment for  the  last  forty  years,  but  necessary  in  his  opinion  to 
break  the  formidable  aristocracy  which  had  ruled  the  kingdom 
during  that  period.^  In  consequence  of  this  change  in  his  politi- 
cal system  and  connections.  Lord  Holland,  as  he  soon  after  be- 
came, forfeited  the  friendship  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  his 
early  patron,  and  separated  from  his  old  friend,  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Whig  party.  Horace 
Walpole  sympathized  with  many  who,  he  thought,  had  sufi'ered 
unjustly  from  this  persecution  ;  and  though  Lord  Holland,  on  the 
resignation  of  Lord  Bute,  withdrew  from  any  active  part  in  pub- 
lic affairs,  what  had  been  done  inflamed  Mr.  Walpole  with  re- 
sentment, and  made  him  ever  after  the  bitter  enemy  of  Lord 
Holland.     Whatever  rumors  he  heard,  whatever  gossip  reached 

^  [It  was  said  on  this  occasion,  in  allusion  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's 
exertions  in  favor  of  the  Hanover  succession,  that  Lord  Bute  had  turned 
out  every  man  brought  in  by  his  Grace  except  the  King.] — J.  A. 

VOL.  I. — 6 


62  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  20. 

his  ears^  to  the  prejudice  of  any  member  of  the  Fox  family,  he 
seized  on  with  avidity,  committed  to  paper  without  hesitation, 
and,  without  revision  or  subsequent  correction,  bequeathed  as 
historical  facts  to  posterity.  Much  caution  and  reserve  are, 
therefore,  necessary  in  quoting  from  his  works,  where  Lord  Hol- 
land or  his  sons  are  concerned.  When  he  speaks  with  admira- 
tion of  the  precocious  talents  of  Mr.  Fox,  his  testimony  may  be 
credited,  because  his  political  partialities,  as  well  as  his  personal 
prejudices,  were  all  the  other  way.  Where  he  paints  his  dissi- 
pation and  enlarges  on  his  extravagance,  the  tales  he  relates  are 
worth  preserving,  as  consonant  to  general  tradition,  and  conform- 
able to  what  has  been  handed  to  us  of  the  manners  and  character 
of  the  age.  But  the  false  coloring,  and  misrepresentation  of 
facts,  with  which  he  gives  pungency  to  his  narrative,  it  would  be 
idle  to  repeat  for  the  mere  purpose  of  exposing  and  refuting 
them.] 

Mr.  Fox  was  returned  for  Midhurst  in  the  parliament  which 
met  on  the  10th  May,  1768.  He  was  then  only  nineteen  years 
and  four  months  old.     He  sat  and  spoke  before  he  was  of  age. 

1769. 

[x\s  he  was  absent  from  England  when  the  Parliament  met, 
he  did  not  take  his  seat  till  the  second  session,  which  began  in 
the  following  November.  His  first  speech  appears,  from  Sir 
Henry  Cavendish's  debates,  to  have  been  made  on  the  9th  March, 
1769,  when  he  was  little  more  than  twenty  years  old.  He  spoke 
again  on  the  14th  April,  and  a  third  time  on  the  8th  May.^     His 

■  I  have  in  my  possession  a  sii^gular  proof  of  the  figure  and  impression 
Mr.  Fox  made  on  his  first  appearance  as  an  orator.  A  young  artist,  and, 
I  believe,  a  reporter  of  debates,  a  Mr.  Surtees,  of  Maniforth,  in  the  county 
of  Durham,  happened  to  be  in  the  gallery  when  he  first  spoke.  At  that 
period  no  stranger  was  allowed  to  make  notes,  or  take  any  paper  or  note- 
book into  the  gallery  for  that  purpose.  But  this  gentleman,  struck  with 
the  appearance  of  the  youthful  orator,  tore  off  part  of  his  shirt,  and 
sketched  on  it,  with  a  pencil  or  burnt  stick,  a  likeness  of  him,  which  he 
afterwards  tried  to  finish  at  his  lodgings,  and  which,  owing  to  the  care  of 


1769.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  63 

first  speech  seems  to  have  been  nothing  more  than  a  few  words 
on  a  point  of  order ;  his  second  was  in  support  of  the  expulsion 
of  Wilkes ;  his  third  on  the  petition  against  the  return  of  Colonel 
Luttrel  for  Middlesex ;  the  two  last  on  the  side  of  government. 
None  of  these  speeches  are  reported  well  or  at  length,  but  they 
seem  to  have  made  a  favorable  impression  on  his  audience.] 
Horace  "Walpole  alludes  in  terms  of  qualified  praise  to  the  second, 
in  his  account  of  the  debates  of  the  14th  and  15th  April,  which, 
as  usual,  he  jumbles  together  and  confounds  in  one.  ^'Norton, 
Lord  North,  and  the  Attorney-General  De  Gray,  spoke  firmly  for 
Luttrel.  Stephen  Fox  indecently  and  indiscreetly  said,  '  Wilkes 
had  been  chosen  by  the  scum  of  the  earth,'  an  expression  after 
retorted  on  his  family,  his  grandfather's  birth  being  of  the  lowest 
obscurity.  Young  Payne  (Sir  Ralph),  in  a  pompous  oration, 
abused  the  supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  protesting  on  his 
honor  that  his  speech  was  not  premeditated,  but,  forgetting  part, 
he  inadvertently  pulled  it  out  of  his  pocket  in  writing.  Charles 
Fox,  with  infinite  superiority  in  parts,  was  not  inferior  to  his 
brother  in  insolence.'' — H.  w. 

[To  this  speech,  his  father,  Lord  Holland,  alludes  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Campbell  of  Cawdor,  with  the  partiality  perhaps  of  a 
parent,  but  which  the  extorted  praise  of  Horace  Walpole  goes 
far  to  justify,  "  I  am  told  that  few  in  Parliament  ever  spoke  bet- 
ter than  Charles  did  on  Tuesday — off-hand — with  rapidity,  with 
spirit,  and  such  knowledge  of  what  he  was  talking  of  as  surprised 
everybody  in  so  young  a  man.  If  you  think  this  vanity,  I  am 
sure  you  will  forgive  it."]  [Of  his  speech  of  the  8th  May  there 
is  a  short  notice  in  a  letter  from  Sir  Richard  Heron  to  Sir  Charles 
Bunbury,  who  was  then  at  Paris,  dated  9th  May,  1769 :]  "  I 
shall  be  happy  to  see  you  returned  to  your  country,  and  assisting 
it  in  the  Senate.  Mr.  Charles  Fox,  who  I  suppose  was  your 
school-fellow,  and  who  is  but  twenty,  made  a  great  figure  in  the 
debate  last  night  upon  the  petition  of  the  Middlesex  freeholders. 

Mr.  Sharpe  and  kindness  of  Mr.  Fletcher,  is  still  preserved  in  my  posses- 
sion at  Holland  House,  retaining  many  traits  of  resemblance  to  the  dark, 
intelligent,  and  animated  features  of  Mr.  Fox. — V.  H. 


64  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [mTAT.  20. 

He  spoke  witli  great  spirit,  in  very  parliamentary  language,  and 
entered  very  deeply  into  the  question  on  constitutional  principles/^ 
'^Charles  Fox/^  says  Horace  Walpole,  in  his  account  of  this  de- 
hate,  "  not  yet  twenty-one,  answered  Burke  with  great  quickness 
and  parts,  but  with  confidence  equally  premature."  [Of  the 
whole  debate  on  the  8th  May  and  of  the  state  of  parties  at  that 
period,  as  they  appeared  to  Lord  Holland,  there  is  preserved  an 
interesting  account  in  another  letter  of  his  to  Mr.  Campbell  of 
Cawdor.] 

LORD  HOLLAND  TO  JOHN  CAMPBELL,  ESQ. 

"  3Iai/  11,  1769. 

''  Dear  Sir  : — 

"I  delayed  thanking  you  for  your  kind  letter  of  April  27  till  the 
Parliament  should  be  up,  which  it  was  on  Tuesday,  after  a  debate 
of  Monday  till  two  o'clock  on  Tuesday  morning,  in  which  I  am 
told  (and  I  willingly  believe  it)  Charles  Fox  spoke  extremely  well. 
It  was  all  oif-hand,  all  argumentative,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Burke  and 
Mr.  Wedderburne,  and  excessively  well  indeed.  I  hear  it  spoke 
of  by  everybody  as  a  most  extraordinary  thing,  and  I  am,  you 
see,  not  a  little  pleased  with  it.  My  son  Ste  spoke  too,  and  (as 
they  say  he  always  does)  very  short  and  to  the  purpose.  They 
neither  of  them  aim  at  oratory,  make  apologies,  or  speak  of  them- 
selves, but  go  directly  to  the  purpose,  so  I  do  not  doubt  they  will 
continue  speakers;  but  I  am  told  Charles  can  never  make  a  bet- 
ter speech  than  he  did  on  Monday.  I  send  you  a  list  of  the 
speakers  and  the  members.^  I  hear  Norton's  speech  was  the 
best  that  ever  was  made,  and  convincing  to  the  last  degree.  Lord 
Temple  and  Lord  Shelburne,  Gr.  Grenville,  Lord  Rockingham 
and  Lord  Lyttleton,  notwithstanding  all  their  disagreements,  are 
now  thoroughly  united  to  carry  on  the  wicked  work  they  have 
been  always  engaged  in  when  they  have  not  been  in  place,  and 
dined  together  with  the  minority  on  Tuesday  at  the  Thatched 

1  [The  names  of  the  speakers  and  members  agree  "with  the  account  in 
Sir  H.  CaYendish's  Debates,  and  need  not  therefore  be  inserted.] 


1769.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  65 

House,  invited  by  Mr.  Dowdeswell  when  they  were  all  in  the 
lobby. 

''The  King  was  extremely  insulted  when  he  went  to  the 
House,  which  I  should  hope  might  make  him  less  unconcerned 
than  he  seems  to  be.  He  carries  himself  so  it  is  hard  to  know 
whether  he  is  concerned  or  not.  A  lord  who  is  near  him  told 
me,  that  after  the  great  riot  at  St.  James's,  or  rather  in  the 
midst  of  it,  when  he  came  out  to  the  levee,  you  could  not  find 
out,  either  in  his  countenance  or  his  conversation,  that  every- 
thing was  not  quiet  as  usual.  My  notion  of  the  mob  is,  that  it 
is  hired  by  French  money,  that  D'Eon  is  a  distributor  of  it,  and 
that  Lord  Temple  and  Lord  Shelburne  encourage  it. 

''You  are  mistaken  in  thinking  I  could  be  of  service  if  I  was 
consulted,  for  I  really  cannot  foresee  the  consequences  nor  the 
design  of  what  they  are  about,  and  should  therefore  not  know 
what  to  advise. 

"  Mr.  Wilkes  has  quarrelled  with  his  friends,  because,  he  says, 
they  divert  the  attention  of  the  public  from  him.  They  do  so, 
and  I  believe  he  is  near  meeting  with  his  reward — a  just  contempt 
as  well  as  abhorrence.  But  the  spirit  of  disorder,  licentiousness, 
and  faction  still  continues,  and  whether  it  will  be  better  or  worse 
for  not  flowing  from  Mr.  Wilkes's  direction,  I  can't  tell.  You 
must  observe  I  don't  mention  Lord  Chatham.  Nobody  does 
now,  and  that  is  a  step,  as  far  as  it  goes,  to  your  more  favorable 
opinion  of  him.  I  believe  Lord  Temple  has  been  telling  lies 
these  three  months,  and,  no  longer  ago  than  last  Sunday,  assured 
several  people  that  Lord  Chatham  had  prevailed  to  have  the 
prorogation  of  Parliament  put  off  for  three  or  four  days,  and 
would  come  down  and  speak ;  whereas  the  poor  man  has  all  the 
time  been  confined  to  his  room,  if  not  to  his  bed.  If  I  knew 
nothing  of  Lord  Temple  but  this  profligate  and  scandalous  lying 
disposition,  I  should  hate  him  as  I  do. 

"Except  two  or  three  days  that  I  shall  go  to  Kingsgate,  I 
shall  be  to  be  found  here,  and  never  so  happy  as  when  found  by 
you.  You  may  then  tell  my  sons  what  they  desired  me  to  ask 
you,  whether  you  cared  about  the  Pembrokeshire  petition,  and 

6* 


Q6  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  20. 

wliat  part  you  would  have  them  to  take  in  it.  Did  they  get  any 
instructions  from  Pembrokeshire  at  last?  which  I  see  is  asserted 
in  the  newspapers.  If  they  did  not,  I  think  the  sheriff  should 
advertise  the  fjilsity  of  it. 

^'Ever,  dear  Sir, 

^' Yours,  most  obliged  and 

'^Most  affectionate, 
(Signed)  ''HOLLAND."^ 

When  Mr.  Fox  was  chosen  for  Midhurst,  and  during  the 
whole  of  the  ensuing  session  of  1768  and  1769,  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  was  minister ;  but  even  during  the  early  part  of  that 
period,  although  Lord  Chatham  was  nominally  his  colleague,  he 
had  ceased  to  attend  the  cabinets,  or  even  to  communicate  his 
view  of  public  matters  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  who  was  embar- 
rassed for  want  of  his  counsels,  and  alarmed  at  the  absence  of 
his  support,  and  consequently  obliged  to  look  for  assistance  else- 
where, especially  as  the  affair  of  Wilkes  and  the  Middlesex  elec- 
tion grew  daily  more  perplexing  and  unpopular.  He  got  more 
and  more  connected  with  the  Bedfords,  and  was  openly  supported, 
especially  in  the  business  of  Wilkes,  by  the  family,  friends,  and 
followers  of  Lord  Holland.  On  the  12th  of  October,  1768, 
Lord  Chatham  wrote  to  the  [Duke  of  Grafton,  imploring  his 
Majesty's  permission  to  resign  the  Privy  Seal  on  the  score  of 
health,  expressing  at  the  same  time  his  resentment  at  the  usage 
received  by  his  friends  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst  and  Lord  Shelburne. 
With  much  reluctance  and  after  a  fruitless  attempt  from  the 
King  to  prevail  on  him  to  withdraw  his  resignation,  to  which  he 
replied  by  reiterating  his  supplication  to  be  allowed  to  resign, 
his  request  was  complied  with.]  He  then  resigned,  and  Lord 
Shelburne,  to  avoid  dismission,  says  Horace  Walpole,  followed 
him.  Lord  Camden,  Lord  Chatham's  friend,  remained  Chancel- 
lor; and  Lord  Bristol,  reputed  so  hitherto,  was  appointed  Privy 

^  The  letter  is  signed  by  Lord  Holland,  but  written,  as  all  or  most  of 
his. are  in  17C9,  in  another  hand. 


1769.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  67 

Seal ;  and  Lord  Rocliford  Secretary  of  State.  Lord  Chatliam 
was  soon  after,  through  the  means,  says  "VValpole,  of  Calcraft, 
reconciled  to  Lord  Temple  and  Mr.  Grenville,  and  in  opposition. 
Such  was  the  state  of  parties  when  Mr.  Fox  first  entered  Par- 
liament and  took  a  part  in  the  debates. — v.  H. 

I  am  not  sure  through  what  interest  Lord  Holland  bought,  as 
I  am  confident  he  must  have  done,  the  seat  at  Midhurst.  But 
Mr.  Fox  came  in  for  that  borough,  no  doubt,  in  the  character  of 
a  supporter  of  Grovernment,  and  his  father  was  throughout  1768 
and  1769,  not  only  on  the  side  of  Government,  but  a  bitter  and 
eager  opponent  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  votes 
of  his  sons  and  from  his  own  private  letters. 

[Among  many  letters  indicating  the  political  tendency  of  Lord 
Holland's  opinions  at  this  period,  the  following  extract  from  one 
of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Campbell  of  Cawdor  deserves  insertion.  It 
shows  under  what  political  impressions  Mr.  Fox  made  his  entrance 
into  public  life,  and  it  is  curious,  besides,  as  a  just  tribute  to 
Lord  Chatham  from  his  old  political  rival  and  opponent.  It  was 
written  from  Nice,  on  the  20th  of  April,  1768,  at  the  time  when 
the  return  of  Mr.  Wilkes  from  exile  had  been  followed  by  his 
first  election  for  Middlesex.] — "  Irresolution,"  Lord  Holland  ob- 
serves, "  has  been  a  general  fault,  and  is  surely  a  most  fatal 
weakness.  I  think  Pitt  almost  the  only  man  that  I  have  seen 
in  power,  who  had  not  that  faulty  though  he  had  many  otliers, ; 
for  which  reason  I  wish  he  were  again  well,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  my  life,  should  be  glad  to  see  him  at  the  head  of  every- 
thing, undertaking  to  stem  that  torrent  which  he  has  so  long  and 
so  much  contributed  to  swell.'^  [Pitt  did  get  well,  but  he  took 
a  part  directly  opposite  to  that  which  Lord  Holland  seems  to  have 
anticipated.] 

[Lord  Holland  and  his  sons  took  a  warm  and  active  part  in 
support  of  Colonel  Luttrel.  Stephen  Fox  proposed  him  on  the 
hustings,  and  at  Holland  House  a  great  breakfast  had  been  pre- 
pared for  the  troop  of  gentlemen  who  were  to  have  escorted  him 
to  Brentford ;  but  a  mob  that  assembled  before  his  father.  Lord 
Irnham's  door,  compelled   these  gallants  to  disperse  and  make 


68  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  21. 

their  escape,  as  tliey  could,  by  breaking  an  opening  through  the 
garden-wall  behind  the  house.  This  prominent  and  undisguised 
opposition  to  their  idol  exasperated  the  city  and  the  populace 
against  Lord  Holland  and  his  family.  Petitions  and  denuncia- 
tions from  the  Middlesex  electors,  letters  and  speeches  from  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  Alderman  Beckford,  threats  from  the  Livery, 
and  instructions  given  to  their  representatives  to  institute  a  par- 
liamentary inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  Lord  Holland,  and,  if 
matter  was  found,  to  impeach  him,  followed  in  succession,  but, 
as  Horace  Walpole^  concludes  his  account  of  these  transactions, 
"it  came  to  nothing,''  and  their  silence  cleared  him.] 

[On  the  9th  of  October  following.  Lord  and  Lady  Holland, 
with  their  sons,  Charles  and  Henry,  went  abroad  with  Lady  Cecilia 
Lennox  (Lady  Holland's  sister),  who  had  been  ordered  to  the 
continent  for  her  health.  She  was  unable  to  proceed  farther 
south  than  Paris,  where  she  died  on  the  13  th  of  November.  The 
rest  of  the  party  remained  at  Paris  till  the  end  of  the  year,  when 
Charles  and  Henry  returned  to  England,  and  Lord  and  Lady 
Holland  went  on  to  Nice.  During  his  stay  at  Paris,  Mr.  Fox 
made  himself  remarked  for  his  losses  at  play.  His  mother 
appears,  from  her  correspondence,  to  have  been  elated  with  the 
fashionable  society  in  which  he  lived,  but  if  Madame  Du  Deffand^ 
does  not  exaggerate,  he  paid  well  for  it.] 

1770. 

[Mr.  Crawford,  who  accompanied  Mr.  Fox  and  his  brother  on 
their  return  from  Paris  in  January,  1770,  told  Lord  Holland,  in 
1813,  that]  "  they  arrived  in  London  the  night  before  Parliament 
met,  that  Mr.  Fox  sat  up  all  night  at  the  Star  and  Garter,  and 
made  his  maiden  speech  next  day  in  answer  to  Sir  George  Saville." 
[That  the  speech  he  made  on  his  return  from  Paris  with  Mr. 
Crawford,  was  not  his  maiden  speech,  has  been  already  shown. 
On  the  debate  of  the  9  th  of  January  (which  must  be  the  one 

'  MS.  Memoirs. 

2  Letters  to  Horace  Walpole,  10th  and  26tli  December,  1 7G9. 


1770.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  69 

meant  by  Mr.  Crawford)],  Walpole  says,  that  after  Conway  had 
answered  Sir  George  Saville  with  wisdom  and  temper,  ''  though 
Charles  Fox  replied  (to  Saville  that  is)  with  much  applauded  fire, 
moderation  had  made  its  impression." — h.  w. 

"  On  the  debate  of  the  25th  of  January ,^^  says  "Walpole, 
^'  young  Charles  Fox,  of  age  the  day  before,  started  up  and 
entirely  confuted  Wedderburne  even  in  law,  producing  a  case 
decided  in  the  courts  below  but  the  last  year,  and  exactly  similar 
to  that  of  Wilkes.  The  court,  he  said,  had  had  no  precedent,  but 
had  gone  on  analogy.  The  house  roared  with  applauseJ^ — li.  w. 
[In  the  following  month,^  Mr.  Fox  was  appointed  one  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Admiralty.  At  the  time  of  his  admission  to  office, 
the  contest  between  the  party  styling  themselves  the  King's 
friends,  and  the  survivors  of  those  ministers  who  had  governed 
the  country  in  the  latter  years  of  G-eorge  II.,  still  raged  with 
violence,  though  it  was  fast  drawing  to  a  close.  It  had  subsisted 
during  the  administrations  of  Lord  Bute,  George  Grenville,  Lord 
Rockingham,  and  Lord  Chatham,  without  any  decisive  victory 
on  either  side.  Lord  Chatham  had  entered  on  his  second  admin- 
istration with  every  advantage  he  could  desire.^  Selected  by  the 
King  in  preference  to  Lord  Rockingham  and  Mr.  Grenville — 
idolized  by  the  people,  who  recollected  with  pride  and  exultation 
the  glories  of  his  first  administration — feared  by  the  House  of 
Bourbon,  which,  in  all  its  branches,  trembled  at  his  name — he 
had  the  imprudence  to  sacrifice  his  popularity  and  station  in  the 
country  for  a  peerage,  to  ofi'end  by  his  haughtiness  and  caprice 
the  Whig  aristocracy,  without  whom  he  was  unable  to  form  a 
stable  government  that  could  keep  his  enemies  in  awe — and, 
lastly,  from  bad  health  and  waywardness  of  temper,^  he  abandoned 
the  motley  administration  he  had  formed  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton 
and  Charles  Townshend.  In  vain  the  Duke  of  Grafton  applied 
to  him  for  assistance  and  advice.     In  vain  the  King  urged  him 

1  February  24th. 

2  July,  1766. 

3  From  bad  health,  as  it  now  appears,  aiFecting  his  mind  as  well  as  his 
body. — See  Lord  Mahou,  vol.  v.  and  vi. — J.  K.. 


70  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  21. 

■with  earnestness;  and  with  every  appearance  of  sincerity,  to  un- 
dertake the  direction  of  affairs.  In  his  replies  to  the  King  he 
was  humble  and  submissive  in  language,  adulatory  and  even 
abject  in  his  professions  of  personal  regard  and  gratitude  for  his 
Majesty's  condescension,  but  positive  in  his  refusal  to  engage  in 
business,  for  which  his  health,  he  alleged,  rendered  him  utterly 
incapable.  Once  or  twice  he  admitted  the  Duke  of  Grafton  into 
his  presence,  but  declined  to  converse  with  him  on  public  affairs. 
When  this  farce  had  continued  more  than  a  year  and  a  half,  the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  who  had  been  relieved  by  death  from  the  levity, 
versatility,  and  indiscretion  of  Charles  Townshend,^  formed  a 
coalition  with  the  partisans  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  and  appointed 
Lord  North  his  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.^  Lord  Chatham 
remained  in  seclusion  and  retirement,  nominally  in  office,  but 
unable  or  unwilling  to  execute  even  the  slight  duties  attached  to 
the  Privy  Seal.] 

[The  minister,  strengthened  by  the  accession  of  the  Bedford 
party,  and  hopeless  of  further  aid  from  Lord  Chatham,  began  to 
view  the  private  friends  Lord  Chatham  had  introduced  into  office 
as  persons  that  might  be  got  rid  of  whenever  it  suited  his  con- 
venience. Lord  Bristol  had  retired  from  Ireland  f  Sir  Jeffrey 
Amherst  was  removed  from  Virginia ;  Lord  Shelburne,  after 
submitting  to  have  his  department  curtailed  by  the  appointment 
of  a  colonial  secretary,  found  himself  slighted,  his  nominations 
thwarted,  and  himself  threatened  with  dismissal.  Boused  by 
these  marks  of  disrespect.  Lord  Chatham  resigned,'*  and  in  the 
month  following  his  resignation  he  became  reconciled  to  his 
brothers-in-law,  Lord  Temple  and  Mr.  George  Grenville,  both  of 
whom  were  in  flaming  opposition  to  the  Government  he  had 
quitted.  The  session  of  Parliament  that  followed  was  marked 
by  the  repeated  expulsions  of  Wilkes,  and  the  outrageous  reso- 
lution of  the  Commons  that  his  competitor  Luttrel  was  duly 
elected  member  for  Middlesex.     Lord  Chatham  was  silent  and 

1  September  4,  1767.  ^  December,  1767. 

3  July,  1767.  4  October  14,  1768. 


1770.]  CHARLES    JAMES   EOX.  71 

• 
remained  secluded  during  these  discussions,  but  when  the  session 

was  over  he  surprised  the  world  by  his  reappearance  at  Court. 
He  was  courteously  received  and  favored  with  an  audience,  but 
had  no  overtures  made  to  him,  or  at  least  none  that  have  ever 
transpired.] 

[In  the  two  following  years,  though  occasionally  disabled  by 
gout.  Lord  Chatham  appears  to  have  recovered  the  ardor  and 
activity  of  youth.  Reconciled  to  George  Grenville,  and  no 
longer  severed  from  the  Rockingham  AYhigs  by  his  rooted  dis- 
trust of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who  died  in  1768,  he  took  the 
lead  in  opposition  to  the  Government.  His  correspondence  shows 
how  confident  he  and  his  friends  were  of  success.  They  had  the 
city  and  metropolitan  counties  on  their  side.  With  much  impor- 
tunity they  prevailed  on  the  popular  Lord  Granby  to  retire  from 
the  command  of  the  army.  The  Duke  of  Grafton  was  panic- 
stricken  and  resigned.^  But  the  exertions  of  the  Opposition,  the 
measures  they  took,  the  motions  they  made,  served  only  to  con- 
solidate the  system  they  meant  to  overturn.  The  Court,  after 
enjoying  the  humiliation  of  Lord  Camden,  who  had  lingered  in 
oJ0&ce  after  most  of  his  friends  had  retired,  deprived  him  of  the 
seals.  Lord  North,  the  successor  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  by 
his  temper,  good-humor,  and  readiness  in  debate,  conciliated  the 
Commons,  while  his  indolence  and  facility  made  him  and  kept 
him  for  many  years,  in  spite  of  himself,  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  the  Court.  The  forwardness  and  presumption  of  Beck- 
ford,  the  Lord  Mayor,  though  applauded  by  the  city  and  ap- 
proved of  by  Lord  Chatham,  disgusted  and  offended  the  sober- 
minded.      Want    of  success   in   repeated   motions    against  the 

'  [.January  28,  1770.  This  event,  which  was  quite  unexpected,  sur- 
prised every  one.]  "The  Duke  of  Grafton's  resignation  appears  to  me 
unaccoimtable,"  writes  Lady  Holland  from  Nice;  "I  hope  Lord  North 
has  courage  and  resolution.  Charles  being  connected  with  him  pleases 
me  mightily.  I  have  formed  a  very  high  opinion  of  his  lordship,  and  my 
Charles  will,  I  dare  say,  inspire  him  with  courage."  [Such  was  the 
service  to  which  Mr.  Fox,  at  his  entrance  into  public  life,  was  destined  by 
the  fond  partiality  of  his  parents.] — J.  A. 


72  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  21. 

minority  was  followed  by  its  inevitable  consequences.  Disunion 
broke  out  in  the  Opposition  camp.  The  moderation,  and,  what 
he  called,  the  narrow  genius  of  the  Whig  connection,  dissatisfied 
and  excited  the  contempt  of  Lord  Chatham.  '^For  myself,'^  says 
he,  ^'I  am  resolved  to  be  in  earnest  for  the  public,  and  shall  be 
a  scarecrow  of  violence  to  the  gentle  warblers  of  the  grove,  the 
moderate  Whigs,  and  temperate  statesmen.'^  But,  like  other 
political  agitators,  though  he  could  rouse  the  passion,  he  could 
not  regulate  the  petulance  nor  control  the  presumption  of  his 
followers.  The  self-willed  demagogues  in  the  city  quarrelled 
with  one  another,  and  provoked  him.  The  war,  which,  at  the 
opening  of  the  campaign,  had  commenced  with  vigor,  languished 
before  its  close,  and  dwindled  in  the  following  session  to  speeches 
about  the  Falkland  Isles,  and  to  squabbles  with  the  city  magis- 
trates, who  had  liberated  some  printers  committed  by  the  Com- 
mons. The  death  of  Mr.  Grenville  had,  in  the  mean  while, 
deprived  the  Opposition  of  one  of  the  ablest  of  their  parlia- 
mentary leaders.  His  friends  immediately  slackened  in  their 
attendance,  or  abandoned  their  colors.  The  interested,  despairing 
of  success,  made  their  bargain  with  the  minister,  and,  before  the 
session  of  1771  was  brought  to  a  close,  the  government  of  Lord 
North  might  be  considered  as  being  firmly  established.] 

[How  far,  during  these  transactions.  Lord  Bute  continued  to 
advise  and  direct  the  Court  in  private,  after  he  had  retired  from 
all  public  employments,  has  been  a  matter  of  dispute.  The 
oj)inion  of  Lord  Holland  on  the  subject  may  be  collected  from 
the  following  observations,  which  he  has  left  inserted  in  this  part 
of  his  collections  for  the  life  of  Mr.  Fox.] 

Horace  Walpole,  in  a  long  and  tiresome  disquisition  on 
Burke's  '^  Causes  of  the  present  Discontents,^'  enters  into  an 
inquiry  of  the  degree  of  influence  retained  by  Lord  Bute  after 
his  resignation,  in  which  he  says  Burke  acquitted  him  of  all 
influence]  ^^a  proof  of  credulity,'^  says  Horace  Walpole,  "instilled 
into  him  by  Lord  Holland,  who  always  held  that  language.'' 
This  passage  implies,  and,  I  believe,  truly,  that  Mr.  Burke  was 
in  the  habit  of  seeing  Lord  Holland,  to  whom  I  think  he  was 


1770.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  73 

introduced  very  early  by  Charles  Fox,  and  who  remarked  of  him 
that  he  supposed  he  was  a  wonderfully  clever  man,  but  that  he 
did  not  like  those  clever  fellows  who  could  not  plainly  say  ^^yes" 
or  ''no"  to  any  question  you  asked  them,  alluding  to  Burke's  ex- 
cessive practice  of  talking.  Lord  Holland  was  right  in  the  lan- 
guage he  held  about  Bute.  At  least  George  the  Third,  at 
seasons  and  to  persons  where  he  had  no  reason  to  conceal  the 
fact,  declared  he  never  saw  in  private  nor  communicated  with 
Lord  Bute  but  once  after  his  promise  not  to  consult  with  him  or 
ask  his  advice  on  public  affairs,  and  that  was  in  the  garden  at 
Kew,  where  the  Princess  Dowager  surprised  and  offended  him  by 
introducing  Lord  Bute  to  him  unexpectedly.  This  I  had  from 
the  Duke  of  York. 

[It  is  clear  from  this  passage  that  Lord  Holland  did  not  par- 
take in  the  belief,  very  generally  prevalent  in  his  youth,  that 
Lord  Bute  continued  after  his  resignation  to  be  the  secret  adviser 
and  private  director  of  the  measures  pursued  by  the  Court.  It 
is  indeed  extraordinary  that  such  an  opinion  should  have  con- 
tinued after  the  distinct  and  positive  disclaimer  of  Lord  Mount- 
stuart,  in  the  name  of  his  father,  on  occasion  of  a  silly  attempt 
made  by  two  officious  intermeddlers  to  bring  about  a  coalition 
between  Lord  Bute  and  Lord  Chatham.  Mr.  Fox,  then  an  active 
opponent  of  the  American  war,  and  in  no  way  connected  with 
Lord  Bute  or  Lord  Mountstuart,  seems  to  have  been  satisfied 
with  this  disavowal,  and  to  have  drawn  from  it  an  inference 
which  few  persons,  it  is  believed,  would  be  nowadays  bold 
enough  to  reject.]  "I  take  it  for  granted,"  he  says,  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  "  that  you  have  read  Dr.  Addington's  narra- 
tive and  Lord  Mountstuart's  letter.  What  do  you  conclude  from 
them?  I  am  pigeon  enough  to  believe  Lord  Bute,  but  what 
then  ?  The  consequence  is  still  more  unpleasant.  If  it  is  not 
Lord  Bute  who  has  done  the  mischief,  it  must  be  somebody  else, 
whom  it  is  still  more  impossible  to  remove." 

[The  opinion  of  the  first  Lord  Holland,  that  subsequently  to 
the  formation  of  the  Rockingham  Administration  Lord  Bute  was 
not  consulted  in  private  by  the  King,  was  most  decided,  and  as 
VOL,  I. — 7 


74  CORRESPONDENCE    OE  [^TAT.  22. 

he  lived  in  intimacy  with  Lord  Bute^  his  belief  on  that  point  is 
of  value.] 

[In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Welbore  Ellis,  of  the  17th  of  October,  he 
had  said,]  ^^  I  have  seen  Lord  Bute  this  morning.  Nothing  can 
be  more  contrary  to  the  truth  than  what  you  suspected  at  Kings- 
gate.  He  has  had  nothing  to  do  in  these  affairs  from  the  begin- 
ning. He  has  had  no  communication,  nor  means  of  communi- 
cation, any  more  than  if  he  were  where  the  newspapers  would 
send  him.  You  know  I  never  doubted  of  what  he  tells  me  upon 
his  word ;  yet  everything  that  displeases,  of  every  kind,  is  thrown 
on  him.  He  thought  I  blamed  him;  I  fancy,  thinks  everybody 
blames  him.     He  could  tell  me  nothing.     He  knows  nothing.^' 

"I  wonder,"  he  says,  in  another  letter  to  Mr.  Welbore  Ellis, 
of  the  11th  November,  1765,  "you  should  not  understand  me. 
I  say  Lord  B(ute)  lias  no  communication  nor  means  of  com- 
munication— I  mean,  in  private — with  the  King.  The  King 
consulted  the  late  Duke  of  Cumberland  in  March  last,  previously 
to  his  turning  out  the  late  Ministry,  and  has  not  consulted  Lord 
Bute  since.  You  may  disbelieve,  but  you  cannot  misunderstand 
me  now ;  and  what  you  suspected  at  Kingsgate  was  that  Lord 
Bute  saw  the  King  in  private,  and  influenced  everything.  I 
then  believed  the  fii'st,  but  not  the  last.'^ 

1771. 

[In  1771  the  following  notices  of  Mr.  Fox  are  extracte'd  from 
Mr.  Walpole's  Memoirs.] 

11th  February.  On  Sir  William  Meredith's  bill  to  amend  the 
Nullum  Tempus  Act,  "  the  Court  party  were  furious  against  the 
injustice,  and  seemed  glad  to  be  oppressed  once,  and  made  inte- 
rest to  defend  the  clause  which  the  bill  went  to  repeal.  Charles 
Fox,  the  phenomenon  of  the  age,  undertook  the  patronage  of  it, 
and  gave  as  much  satisfaction  to  the  party  as  disgust  to  the 
Opposition  by  the  great  talents  he  exerted  on  the  occasion." 
— H.  w. 

18th  March.  On  (jucstion  for  committing  Lord  Mayor,  "Charles 


1771.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  75 

Fox,  as  if  impatient  to  inherit  his  father's  unpopularity,  abused 
the  city  as  his  father  used  to  do,  but  Ministers  were  moderate." 

— H.  W. 

27th  March.  In  a  riot  upon  the  Lord  Mayor  going  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  which  Lord  North  was  insulted  and 
rescued  "by  Sir  William  Meredith,  a  generous  enemy,  and  by 
Mr.  La  Roche,  a  friend," — "the  two  Foxes  were  as  rudely 
handled,  and  escaped  as  narrowly." — H.  w. 

10th  April.  "  When  Lord  North  opened  the  budget,  T.  Towns- 
hend  reflected  on  Lord  Holland  as  author  of  the  proscriptions  at 
the  beginning  of  the  reign.  Charles  Fox  said  he  did  not  believe 
his  father  had  had  any  hand  in  them,  but  if  he  had,  it  was  right 
to  break  the  power  of  the  aristocracy  that  had  governed  in  the 
name  of  the  late  King.  Charles  Fox  asked  me  afterwards  in 
private  if  the  accusation  against  his  father  was  just.  I  replied, 
I  could  not  but  say  it  was." — h.  w. 

In  an  investigation  of  the  formation  and  progress  of  Mr.  Fox's 
political  principles,  this  little  incident,  mentioned  by  Walpole, 
is  of  more  importance  than  at  first  sight  it  may  appear.  It 
raises  an  inference  which  other  slight  facts  recorded  by  Walpole 
confirm,  that  Charles  Fox,  in  his  early  years,  even  in  the  heat  of 
party  and  personal  contention  in  Parliament,  was  singularly 
attentive  to  the  facts  and  maxims  of  his  adversaries,  and  began 
very  early  to  sift  and  examine  the  soundness  of  those  doctrines 
in  support  of  which  accident  and  his  father's  situation  had 
engaged  him.  Burke's  pamphlet  on  the  Discontents,  his  own 
familiarity  with  that  very  able  man,  and  his  observation  and  can- 
dor, gradually  prepared  his  mind  for  the  adoption  of  more  gene- 
rous, elevated,  and  sound  principles  of  public  conduct  than  those 
which  had  been  instilled  into  him;  and  his  father's  ill  health 
and  death,  and  his  own  quarrel  and  separation  from  Ministers, 
fomented  the  growth  of  such  sentiments. — v.  h. 


76  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  23. 


1772. 

6th  January,  1772.   "  Charles  Fox,  whose  ambition  was  checked 
by  the  inactivity  in   Parliament,  gave   notice  in  the  House  of 
Commons  that  he  intended,  on  that  day  fortnight,  to  make  a 
motion  for  the  repeal  of  the  Marriage  Act,  in  order  to  bring  in  a 
new  bill.     His  father,  Lord  Holland,  had  distinguished  himself 
in  the  late  reign  by  his  animated  opposition  to  that  bill.'^    "  When 
he  moved  this  repeal  he  had  not  read  the  Marriage  Act,  nor  did 
he  till  some  days  after.     A  few  evenings  before  he  had  been  at 
Brompton  on  two  errands;  one  to  consult  Justice  Fielding  on  the 
penal  laws,  the  other  to  borrow  10,000?.,  which  he  brought  to 
town  at  the  hazard  of  being  robbed.    As  the  gaming  and  extrava- 
gance of  young  men  of  quality  had  arrived  now  at  a  pitch  never 
heard  of,  it  is  worth  while  to  give  some  account  of  it.     They  had 
a  club  at  Almack's,  in  Pall  IMall,  where  they  played  only  for 
rouleaux  of  601.  each,  and  generally  there  was  10,000?.  in  specie 
on  the  table.    Lord  Holland  had  paid  above  20,000?.  for  his  two 
sons.     Nor  were  the  manners  of  the  gamesters,  or  even  their 
dresses  for  play,  undeserving  notice.     They  began  by  pulling  off 
their  embroidered  clothes  and  put  on  frieze  greatcoats,  or  turned 
their  coats  inside  outwards  for  luck.     They  put  on  pieces  of  lea- 
ther (such  as  are  worn  by  footmen  when  they  clean  the  knives) 
to  save  their  laced  ruffles ;  and  to  guard  their  eyes  from  the  light 
and  to  prevent  tumbling  their  hair,  wore  high-crowned  straw 
hats  with  broad  brims  and  adorned  with  flowers  and  ribbons; 
masks  to  conceal  their  emotions  when  they  played  at  quinze. 
Each  gamester  had  a  small  neat  stand  by  him,  to  hold  their  tea, 
or  a  wooden  bowl  with  an  edge  of  ormolu  to  hold  their  rouleaux. 
They  borrowed  great  sums  of  Jews  at  exorbitant  premiums. 
Charles  Fox  called  his  outward  room,  where  those  Jews  waited 
till  he  rose,  his  Jerusalem  Chamber.'^ — H.  "W. 

7th  February.  Upon  a  petition  presented  by  Sir  W.  Meredith, 
and  signed  by  250  clergymen,  complaining  of  the  subscription  to 
39  articles  (a  petition,  indirectly  encouraged  by  Law,  Bishop  of 


1772.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  77 

Carlisle),  in  the  debate  '^Charles  Fox  declared  for  rejecting  the 
petition,  but  for  doing  something  with  regard  to  the  Universities. 
Religion,  he  said,  was  best  understood  when  least  talked  of" — 

H.  W. 

On  17th,  upon  a  bill  moved  by  Mr.  H.  Seymour,  for  quieting 
the  subjects  against  dormant  claims  of  the  Church,  "  Charles 
Fox,  oppressed  with  debts  and  impatient  to  distinguish  himself, 
seized  the  occasion  presented  by  Lord  North,  and  fell  violently 
on  the  new  doctrine  of  a  member's  beginning  by  stating  the 
clauses  of  a  bill  when  first  moved  for ;  he  called  it  most  unpar- 
liamentary and  arbitrary,  espoused  the  motion,  and  the  rather, 
he  affirmed,  because  no  particular  grievance  pressed,  and  because 
no  one  parliamentary  reason  had  been  alleged  why  the  bill  should 
not  be  brought  in ;  yet  Mr.  Seymour,  he  believed,  would  have 
great  difficulties  to  remove  before  the  bill  could  be  made  perfect. 
The  bill  was  rejected  by  only  141  to  117,  a  very  small  majority 
in  such  a  session.  Charles  Fox,  his  brother,  and  several  other 
ministerial  men,  were  in  the  minority." — H.  w. 

^'On  the  20th  February,  Charles  Fox  resigned  his  place  at  the 
Admiralty." — H.  W.  [His  motives  for  this  step  are  best  ex- 
plained in  the  following  letter,  partly  from  himself  and  partly 
from  Mr.  Crawford,  to  Lord  Ossory — 

"Almacks,  Tliursday,  2\st  February,  1772. 

"  My  dear  Ossory  : — 

^'You  will  be  surprised  at  the  news  I  am  going  to  tell  you. 
Charles  this  day  resigned.  lie  had  not  any  one  particular  reason 
for  this  step,  but  upon  the  whole  he  thought  Lord  North  did  not 
treat  him  with  the  confidence  and  attention  he  used  to  do.  I 
think  Charles  had  reason  to  be  dissatisfied,  but  from  what  I  have 
heard  of  his  conversation  with  Lord  North,  who  was  very  ready 
to  take  all  blame  upon  himself,  and  expressed  the  greatest  desire 
to  keep  »him,  I  think  he  has  been  too  hasty  in  a  step  of  this  con- 
sequence. But  I  believe  he  had  mentioned  his  intention  of  re- 
signing before  he  spoke  to  Lord  North,  and  then  was  ashamed  to 
retract.     It  is  better  to  err  by  too  much  spirit  than  by  too  little, 

7* 


78  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  23. 

and  as  Charles  does  not  mean  to  go  into  opposition,  and  is  always 
worth  a  better  place  than  what  he  had,  it  is  my  opinion  that  what 
he  has  done  will  do  him  credit,  and  turn  out  to  his  advantage 
every  way.'' 

Then  follows  in  Mr.  Fox's  own  hand: — 

"  My  dear  Ossory  : — 

"It  is  impossible  to  tell  you  the  real  reason  of  my  resigning, 
it  is  very  complicated,  and  arises  from  so  many  different  circum- 
stances. I  should  not  have  resigned  at  this  moment  merely  on 
account  of  my  complaints  against  Lord  North,  if  I  had  not  de- 
termined to  vote  against  this  Royal  Family  Bill,  which  in  place 
I  should  be  ashamed  of  doing.  Upon  the  whole  I  am  convinced 
I  did  right,  and  I  think  myself  very  safe  from  going  into  oppo- 
sition, which  is  the  only  danger.  I  am  convinced,  if  you  were 
to  know  the  whole  state  of  the  case,  I  should  have  your  approba- 
tion, which,  I  can  assure  you,  would  make  me  very  happy. 

'^I  am,  my  dear  Ossory, 

"Yours  most  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 

Then  resumed  by  Mr  Crawford  : — 

"This  is  better  than  anything  I  could  have  said  upon  this  sub- 
ject. Charles's  bill  will  not  come  on  until  after  the  Royal  Family 
Bill  is  over,  so  that  you  need  not  come  up  on  that  account  till 
you  hear  further  from  me.  Pray  remember  me  kindly  to  Lady 
Ossory,  and  believe  me  ever  sincerely, 

lours, 

"J.CRAWFORD. 

"P.  S. — I  don't  know  if  what  I  wrote  of  Charles  ought  to 
please  him  or  not,  but  he  came  in  here  when  I  left  off,  and  I 
called  him  to  me  to  read  what  I  had  wrote,  and  bid  him  write  his 
own  story,  if  he  did  not  like  mine."] 

[Mr.  Walpole  thinks  his  resignation]  v:as  prohahly  hy  direction 
of  his  fatlier  [on  which  Lord  Holland  remarks]  that  this  con- 


1772.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  79 

jecture  is  neither  probable  nor  true.  Mr.  Fox  resigned  from 
some  degree  of  personal  discontent  with  Lord  North^  but  chiefly 
and  mainly  because  he  was  determined  to  oppose  the  Royal 
Marriage'  Act,  and  whatever  cause  of  ill-humor  my  grandfather 
might  have,  it  was  not  probable  from  the  habits  of  his  life  that 
he  would  indulge  it  by  resigning  and  going  into  opposition.  I 
have  heard  he  was  much  dissatisfied  with  his  son  for  doing  so, 
and  though  I  cannot  prove  that  fact,  it  seems  to  me  much  more 
probable  than  Mr.  Horace  Walpole's  unfounded  conjecture. 

[The  reasons  given  by  Mr.  Walpole,  why  the  father  should 
have  advised  the  son  to  resign,  are,  his  dissatisfaction  at  not  ob- 
taining his  earldom — the  slight  given  to  his  brother.  Lord 
Ilchester,  by  the  neglect  of  Lord  North,  who  had  not  even  re- 
plied to  a  letter  from  Lord  Ilchester,  soliciting  a  place  for  his 
son-in-law,  O'Brien — and  the  refusal  of  a  peerage  to  his  friend 
Mr.  Upton],  ^^an  additional  reason"  [says  Walpole]  "for  its  being 
believed  that  the  father  had  influenced  the  son's  resignation, 
though  the  father  denied  it;"  [on  which  Lord  Holland  again 
remarks]  Why  should  the  father  deny  it,  if  it  was  true,  and  done 
with  a  view  of  extorting  favors  ?  The  father  knew  too  well  that 
resignation  was  not  the  method  to  obtain  those  objects.  It  never 
had  been  his  own  practice,  nor  would  he  have  recommended  it  to 
his  son. 

"Lord  North,"  according  to  Walpole,  "had  much  distin- 
guished Charles  Fox  the  last  year,  and  had  as  much  neglected 
him  this;  yet  as  soon  as  Fox  had  spoken  against  him,  he 
weakly  and  timidly  called  him  aside,  and  asked  if  he  had  seen 
Maclean,  who  had  got  the  post  which  had  been  asked  for 
O'Brien,  and  who  would  make  O'Brien  his  deputy;  but  this 
Fox  received  with  contempt.  One  of  the  Opposition  triumphing 
on  the  acquisition  of  Fox  from  the  Court,  Gr.  Selwyn  said,  *  You 
have  no  reason  to  triumph.  You  will  be  forced  to  pay  his  debts, 
as  you  did  Wilkes's,  or  you  will  lose  him  again.'  "^ — H.  w. 

■  A  very  natural  observation  for  G.  Selwyn,  •who,  judging  by  the  poli- 
ticians with  whom  he  had  associated,  could  not  easily  imagine  a  man  of 
liabilities  in  distress,  who  from  public  principle  would  abstain  from  re- 
pairing his  fortune  at  the  expense  of  his  opinions. — V.  H. 


80  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  23. 

[On  the  very  day  Mr.  Fox  resigned]  "  was  delivered  tlie  mes- 
sage from  the  King,  recommending  the  Royal  Marriage  Act. 
Lord  North  and  the  Ministers  were  ridiculously  alarmed  [at  this 
coincidence],  and  so  much  terrified  by  the  defection  of  Mr.  Fox 
and  the  disapprobation  of  others,  that  they  obtained  a  mitigation 
of  the  Act,  and  brought  it  in  the  next  day  with  an  alteration, 
exempting  the  princes  from  positive  prohibition  of  marriage 
after  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  enabling  them,  after  leaving 
a  declaration  for  a  year  before  Privy  Council,  to  marry,  unless 
Parliament  made  an  objection." — H.  w. 

[it  is  notorious  that  the  King  himself  was  the  originator  and 
deviser  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act,  and  that  it  was  forced  on  his 
Ministers  much  against  their  will].  In  a  note  dated  26th  Feb- 
ruary, while  the  bill  was  pending  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the 
King  writes  to  Lord  North :  '^  I  expect  every  nerve  to  be 
strained  to  carry  the  bill.  It  is  not  a  question  relating  to  Ad- 
ministration, but  personally  to  myself;  therefore  I  have  a  right 
to  expect  a  hearty  support  from  every  one  in  my  service,  and  I 
shall  remember  defaulters."^  It  is  quite  clear  from  these  words 
that  no  man  in  office  could  have  voted  against  the  Royal  Mar- 
riage Bill.  Indeed  it  is  pretty  clear  that,  whether  in  or  out  of 
office,  those  who  voted  against  it  incurred  the  implacable  dis- 
pleasure of  George  III.  He  executed  his  threat  of  remember- 
ing defaulters.  "  His  implacability  against  those  who  opposed 
the  Marriage  Bill,"  says  Walpole,  ^^  proved  it  was  his  own  act." 

25th  February.  "  On  a  motion  for  expunging  thanks  to 
Dr.  Nowell  for  a  sermon  vindicating  Charles  I.,  which  was  car- 
ried by  151 — 42,  General  Keppel,  Colonel  Fitzroy,  and  Charles 
Fox,  all  descendants  of  Charles  I.,  voted  against  the  sermon,  as 
did  even  Dyson,^  and  many  courtiers." — H.  w. 

9th  March.  ''  Charles  Fox  was  not  only  very  temperate,  but 
profuse  of  incense  to  Lord  North  on  the   stand  he  had  made 

^  MS.  Correspondence  -with  Lord  North. 

2  Jeremiah  Dyson  said,  "  If  King  Charles's  grandsons  vote  against  it, 
sure  I  may." — H.  W. 


1772.]  CnARLES   JAMES   FOX.  81 

against  Opposition,  and  of  his  grief  for  diifering  witli  him. 
Lord  North  was  not  ungrateful,  but  returned  Fox's  flattery  with 
interest,  and  not  without  ridicule,  from  being  so  exaggerated, 
and  from  being  proof  of  his  fear/' — H.  w. 

[The  extreme  interest  taken  by  Mr.  Walpole  in  the  Royal 
Marriao^e  Act  arose  from  the  marriage  of  his  niece  with  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester;  being  supposed,  with  the  marriage  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  to  Mrs.  Horton,  to  have  been  the  chief 
motives  that  determined  G-eorge  III.  to  insist  with  such  earnest- 
ness on  that  measure;  and  as  the  part  taken  by  Mr.  Fox  against 
the  bill  is  supposed  to  have  made  a  lasting  impression  against 
him  at  Court,  it  has  been  thought  proper  to  extract  from  Mr. 
Walpole's  Journal  the  running  commentary  he  has  given  of 
Mr.  Fox's  conduct  throughout  the  discussion.] 

11th  March.  The  parties  on  the  Royal  Marriage  Bill  classed 
in  three  distinct  bodies :  1st,  "  against  principle,"  composed  of 
^'  Sir  William  Meredith,  the  Shelburne  faction,  and  on  this  occa- 
sion the  Foxes;"  the  2d  division  were  for  going  into  the  com- 
mittee '^  with  views  to  amendments;"  the  3d,  ''the  ministerial 
squadron,  who  desired  to  send  the  bill  to  the  committee  for 
form,"  but  with  no  intention  of  altering  it.  "  Ste  Fox,  in 
patriot  terms,  complained  of  the  enormity  of  recurring  to  history 
for  precedents.  Charles  Fox  was  so  inoffensive,  that,  as  Burke 
said  afterwards,  the  dissent  of  some  gentlemen  was  the  opposition 
of  half  an  hour." — H.  w. 

On  13th  March,  the  House  of  Commons  in  committee  on 
Royal  Marriage  Bill,  Charles  Fox  attacked  the  Rockingham 
party,  saying  "  he  was  not  surprised  they  were  going  into  the 
preamble,  as  they  did  not  know  how  to  attain  their  ends,  and 
always  defeated  their  own  purposes." — H.  w. 

On  the  preamble  of  same  bill,  "  Charles  Fox  made  a  greater 
figure  than  ever,  chiefly  at  the  expense  of  Sir  Fletcher  Norton, 
whose  dreaded  abilities  he  held  in  contempt.  But  he  first 
blamed  Lord  North  for  having  said  indiscreetly,  on  the  preced- 


82  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^.TAT.  23. 

ing  day,  that  there  were  300  members  to  64  who  had  declared 
the  bill  to  be  agreeable  to  law,  yet  many  of  the  300  had  entered 
their  protest  against  being  included  in  that  opinion.  He  him- 
self had  ever  thought  the  bill  odious;  he  thought  it  ten  times 
more  so  since  he  had  heard  Sir  Fletcher's  doctrines.  It  was  the 
more  odious  from  the  uncertainty  under  which  he  had  left  it — 
that  glorious  uncertainty,  said  he,  which  always  attends  the 
law.^  Had  any  gentleman  explained  the  term,  Descendants  of 
the  Royal  Family?  He  would  answer,  No.  He  had  been  told 
that  particular  care  had  been  taken  to  find  out  the  person  who 
solemnized  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  marriage,  for  what  pur- 
pose he  knew  not.  This,  and  much  more,  he  uttered  with  great 
warmth,  energy,  and  applause." — H.  w. 

Horace  Walpole  classes  '^  Charles  Fox's  logic  with  Burke's 
oratory  and  Conway's  energy,"  as  constituting  the  force  of  op- 
position to  the  bill. — H.  w. 

16th  March.  "  Charles  Fox  said  no  decent  reason  had  been 
given  why  the  words  should  not  be  Descendants  of  George  III., 
not  George  II.  He  was  not  clear  the  bill  had  not  a  retrospective 
view.  He  spoke  on  with  great  force,  though  less  applauded 
than  the  preceding  day." — H.  w. 

On  the  18th  March,  "  Charles  Fox  proposed  to  leave  out  the 
words  'other  tJian  the  issue  of  princesses  married  into  foreign 
families,^  and  to  substitute  the  words  'heing  a  subject  of  Great 
Britain  f  because,  as  he  showed,  foreigners  could  not  be  bound 
by  our  laws,  and  that  foreign  families  would  take  in  so  many 
cases  that  there  would  be  more  danger  of  foreign  wars  even  than 
of  domestic." — H.  w. 

"Charles  Fox  persisted  in  asking  whether  persons  not  subjects 
of  England  came  within  the  act?" — H.  w. 

"  Charles  Fox  urged  that,  while  the  lawyers  contradicted  one 
another,  it  was  in  vain  to  say,  as  Wedderburne  maintained,  that 
the  line  was  ascertained.  This  would  be  the  first  time  that  ever 
a  penal  law  was  passed  with  the  lawyers  difi'ering." — H.  w. 

'  His  father,  Lord  Holland,  too,  had  always  great  pleasure  in  attacking 
the  lawyers. — H.  W. 


1772.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  83 

"Charles  Fox  said  the  occasion  (of  the  Royal  Marriage  Bill) 
was  pitiful  and  disgraceful.  Did  the  dignity  of  the  Crown  con- 
sist in  the  marriages  of  the  Koyal  Family  ?  He  then,  perceiving 
the  Ministers  would  not  argue,  yet  maintained  the  clause,  said 
artfully,  he  perceived  Lord  North's  friends  had  abandoned  his 
defence." — H.  w. 

20th  March.  "Charles  Fox  asked  Lord  North  with  what  face 
he  could  tell  him  that  a  prince,  who  should  contract  a  marriage 
contrary  to  this  bill,  would  not  be  guilty  of  a  praemunire.  That 
clause  was  a  tacit  confession  of  the  weakness  of  the  nullity. '^ — 

H.  W. 

"But  a  more  remarkable  secret  came  out.  Yery  few  days 
before  the  conclusion  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Bill,  young  Mr. 
Crawford,  mentioned  above,  told  me  this  story.  He  gave  a  din- 
ner to  his  countryman,  Mr.  Wedderburne,  the  Solicitor-General, 
to  Charles  Fox,  and  others.  They  got  drunk,  and,  in  his  cups, 
Wedderburne  blabbed  that  he  and  Thurlow  had  each  drawn  the 
plan  of  an  unexceptionable  bill,  but  that  Lord  Mansfield  had  said 
they  were  both  nonsense,  had  rejected  them,  and  then  himself 
drew  the  present  bill;  'and  damn  him,^  added  Wedderburne, 
*  when  he  called  my  bill  nonsense,  did  he  think  I  would  defend 
him?'  In  the  course  of  the  debates,  I  have  given  very  inade- 
quate ideas  of  the  speeches  of  Burke,  and  Charles  Fox,  and  Wed- 
derburne, three  excellent  orators  in  different  ways.  I  could  only 
relate  what  I  heard  at  second-hand,  and  from  notes  communicated 
to  me,  which  must  be  imperfect  when  not  taken  in  short-hand. 
Burke's  wit,  allusions,  and  enthusiasm,  were  striking  but  not 
imposing;  Wedderburne  was  a  sharp,  clever  arguer,  though  un- 
equal; Charles  Fox,  much  younger  than  either,  was  universally 
allowed  to  have  seized  the  just  point  of  argument  throughout 
with  most  amazing  rapidity  and  clearness,  and  to  have  excelled 
even  Charles  Townshend  as  a  Parliament  man,  though  inferior 
in  wit  and  variety  of  talents." 

"  Enough  of  that  bill — never  was  an  act  passed  agcdnst  which 
so  much  andybr  which  so  little  was  said." — H.  w. 

[Frequent  mention  has  been  made  in  these  collections  of  Mr. 


84  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  23. 

Crawford,  as  an  early  acquaintance  and  associate  of  Mr.  Fox. 
He  was  a  man  of  parts  and  vivacity,  had  been  a  favorite  with 
Voltaire,  and  lived  to  be  the  friend  of  Calonne.  He  was  well 
known  for  many  years  in  the  fashionable  world,  where  his  curious 
and  prying  disposition  procured  feim  the  nickname  of  the  Fish,  by 
which  he  was  habitually  designated  in  society.  He  sat  in  several 
Parliaments,  and  once  he  attempted  to  speak.  Of  his  failure  on 
that  occasion,  he  gives  a  sprightly  account  in  a  letter  to  Ste  Fox, 
with  whom  and  Lord  Ossory,  as  more  nearly  of  the  same  age,  he 
was  on  more  intimate  habits  than  with  Mr.  Fox.  As  this  letter 
alludes  to  a  distinguishing  feature  in  Mr.  Fox's  character,  which 
was  never  to  desert  a  friend  at  a  pinch,  it  deserves  insertion,] 

MR.  CRAWFORD  TO  STEPHEN  FOX. 

"Grafton  Street. 
*'In  all  distresses  of  our  friends, 
Kind  nature,  ever  bent  to  ease  us, 
Finds  out  some  circumstance  to  please  us. 
How  patiently  we  hear  them  groan ! 
How  glad  the  case  is  not  our  own ! 

"I  know,  dear  Ste,  that  you  will  be  delighted  to  hear  that  I 
had  the  misfortune  to  speak  a  few  days  ago  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  If  I  was  the  oldest  and  dearest  friend  you  had  in 
the  world,  you  could  not  have  wished  me  to  succeed  worse  than 
I  did.  It  was  a  prepared  speech,  ill-timed,  ill-received,  ill-de- 
livered, languid,  jjlaintive,  and  everything  as  bad  as  possible. 
Add  to  all  this,  that  it  was  very  long,  because,  being  prepared 
and  pompously  begun,  I  did  not  know  how  the  devil  to  get  out 
of  it.  I  know  this  news  will  give  you  great  pleasure,  and  it  is 
out  of  perfect  kindness  that  I  send  it  to  you.  The  only  thing  I 
said,  which  was  sensible  or  to  the  purpose,  was  misrepresented 
by  Burke.  Charles  was  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  me  in  my 
distress.  He  explained  and  defended  what  I  had  said  with  spirit, 
warmth,  and  great  kindness  to  me.  I  am  really  more  pleased  at 
having  received  a  proof  of  kindness  from  Charles,  whom  I  admire 


1772.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  85 

and  love  more  and  more  every  day,  than  I  am  hurt  at  not  suc- 
ceeding in  a  thing  in  which  I  had  no  right  to  succeed.  For  cer- 
tainly it  was  not  the  intention  of  Nature  that  I  should  be  a 
public  speaker,  and  I  shall  never  attempt  it  any  more.  Hie  finis 
Priami  fatorum — I  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  some 
time  next  week  in  my  way  to  Bath.  I  hope  Lady  Mary  will  not 
receive  me  the  worse  for  not  being  an  orator,  or  rather  for  having 
attempted  to  be  one,  which  was  a  foolish  mistake  with  regard  to 
myself.  All  I  have  said  is  exactly  true,  and  therefore  I  have  no 
doubt  of  this  being  a  very  agreeable  letter  to  jou. 

''For  I  am,  and  ever  have  been, 
"Dear  Ste, 

"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"J.  C." 

April  7.  "  Though  I  had  never  been  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons since  I  had  quitted  Ptfi-liamcnt,  the  fame  of  Charles  Fox 
raised  my  curiosity,  and  I  went  this  day  to  hear  him.  He  made 
his  motion  for  leave  to  brine:  in  a  bill  to  correct  the  old  Marriag-e 
Bill,  and  he  introduced  it  with  ease,  grace,  and  clearness,  and 
without  the  pref)ared  or  elegant  formality  of  a  young  speaker. 
He  did  not  shine  particularly,  but  his  sense  and  facility  showed 
he  could  shine.  He  said  the  two  great  points  of  the  former  bill 
were  to  fix  the  notoriety  of  marriages,  and  to  prevent  improper 
marriages  by  establishing  a  nullity.  He  approved  the  first;  he 
highly  condemned  the  second.  To  encourage  marriage  by  facili- 
ties was  the  business  of  a  rej)ublican  kind  of  government ;  but 
the  late  bill  had  been  the  work  of  a  proud  aristocracy,  and  he 
believed  had  hurt  propagation,  though  he  was  not  ready  with 
proofs  that  it  had.  Colonel  Burgoyne,  a  pompous  man,  whose 
speeches  were  studied,  and  yet  not  striking,  seconded  him.  Lord 
North,  who  had  declared  he  would  not  oppose  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  new  bill,  now  unhandsomely  opposed  it,  to  please  the 
Yorkes  and  the  peers,  and  spoke  well.  He  said  formerly  the 
bill  had  been  matter  of  speculation.  It  was  no  longer  so;  twenty 
years  had  shown  its  utility.  It  ought  not  to  be  laid  aside  unless 
VOL.  I. — 8 


86  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  23. 

proofs  could  be  brought  that  it  had  done  hurt.  T.  Townshend 
supported  the  motion.  Ellis,  who  owned  he  had  been  strongly 
against  the  old  bill,  said  he  had  been  converted  to  it  on  many 
points  by  Lord  North's  supporting  it,  but  should  not  oppose  con- 
sidering how  to  amend  it.  Ongley  and  Cornwall  were,  the  first 
for  the  old,  the  second  for  the  new  bill.  Cornwall,  a  comely, 
sensible  man,  decent  in  his  manner  and  matter,  but  of  no  viva- 
city. Burke  made  a  long  and  fine  oration  against  the  motion. 
Burke  was  certainly  in  his  principles  no  moderate  man,  and  when 
his  party  did  not  interfere,  generally  leaned  towards  the  more 
arbitrary  side,  as  had  appeared  in  the  late  debates  on  the  Church, 
in  which  he  had  declared  for  the  clergy.  He  laid  his  chief  stress 
on  the  impropriety  of  allowing  men  to  have  children  till  they 
were  of  an  age  by  strength  and  prudence  to  maintain  them.  He 
spoke  with  a  choice  and  variety  of  language,  a  profusion  of  meta- 
phors, and  yet  with  a  correction  of  diction,  that  were  surprising. 
His  fault  was  copiousness  above  measure ;  and  he  dealt  abund- 
antly, too  much,  in  establishing  general  positions.  Two-thii-ds 
of  this  oration  resembled  the  beginning  of  a  book  on  speculative 
doctrines,  and  yet  argument  was  not  the  forte  of  it.  Charles 
Fox,  who  had  been  running  about  the  house  talking  to  different 
persons  and  scarce  listening  to  Burke,  rose  with  amazing  spirit 
and  memory,  answered  both  Lord  North  and  Burke,  ridiculed  the 
arguments  of  the  former,  and  confuted  those  of  the  latter  with  a 
shrewdness  that,  from  its  multiplicity  of  reasons,  as  much  ex- 
ceeded his  father  in  embraciug  all  the  arguments  of  his  antago- 
nists, as  he  did  in  his  manner  and  delivery.^  Lord  Holland  was 
always  confused  before  he  could  clear  up  the  point,  fluttered  and 
hesitated,  and  wanted  diction,  and  labored  only  one  forcible  con- 

^  He  (Charles  Fox)  said  ingeniously  that  the  clandestine  marriages 
made  in  Scotland  had  prevented  some  of  the  bad  eCFects  of  the  bill,  and 
yet  that  he  disliked  those  marriages,  because  by  preventing  those  mis- 
chiefs they  had  prevented  the  repeal  of  the  bill.  He  maintained  what 
Burke  denied,  that  it  was  an  aristocratic  bill :  and  he  asked  if  it  was  the 
mildness  of  the  aristocracy  that  had  saved  the  bill  when  a  repeal  of  it  had 
twice  passed  the  House  of  Commons. — H.  W. 


17T2.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  87 

elusion.  Charles  Fox  had  great  facility  of  delivery,  his  words 
flowed  rapidly;  but  he  had  nothing  of  Burke's  variety  of  lan- 
guage or  correctness,  nor  his  method,  yet  his  arguments  were  far 
more  shrewd.  He  was  many  years  younger.  Burke  was  inde- 
fatigable, learned,  and  versed  in  every  branch  of  eloquence; 
Fox  was  dissolute,  dissipated,  idle  beyond  measure.  He  was  that 
very  morning  returned  from  Newmarket,  where  he  had  lost  some 
thousand  pounds  the  preceding  day;  he  had  stopped  at  Hocherel, 
where  he  found  company,  had  sat  up  all  night  drinking,  and  had 
not  been  in  bed  when  he  came  to  move  his  bill,  which  he  had 
not  even  drawn  up.  This  was  genius,  was  almost  inspiration. 
Being  so  very  young,  he  appeared  in  that  light  a  greater  prodigy 
than  the  famous  Charles  Townshend.  Townshend's  speeches, 
for  four  or  five  years,  gave  little  indication  of  his  amazing  parts : 
they  were  studied,  pedantic,  and  like  the  dissertations  of  Burke, 
with  less  brilliancy.  Charles  Fox  approached  to  Charles  Towns- 
hend only  in  argument.  Charles  Townshend  grew  idle  ;  he  had 
taken  pains ;  both  could  illuminate  themselves  from  the  slightest 
hints.  But  Townshend's  wit  exceeded  even  Burke's,  and  he 
could  shine  in  every  science,  in  every  profession,  with  a  quarter 
of  Burke's  application.  All  three  were  vain,  and  kept  down  by 
no  modesty.  Townshend  knew  his  superiority  over  all  men,  and 
talked  of  it;  Fox  showed  that  he  thought  as  well  of  himself; 
Burke  endeavored  to  make  everybody  think  so  of  him.  Burke 
had  most  ambition  and  little  judgment;  Townshend,  no  judgment 
and  most  vanity  ;  Fox,  most  judgment  in  his  speeches,  and  none 
of  Townshend's  want  of  courage  and  truth.  If  Fox  once  reflects, 
and  abandons  his  vices,  in  which  he  is  as  proud  of  shining  as  by 
his  parts,  he  will  excel  Burke ;  for  of  all  the  politicians  of  talents 
that  I  ever  knew,  Burke  has  the  least  political  art.  None  of  the 
three  were  well  calculated  to  command  adherents.  No  man  could 
trust  or  believe  Townshend;  and  though  he  would  flatter  grossly, 
he  would  the  next  moment  turn  the  same  men  into  ridicule.  Fox 
was  too  confident  and  overbearing ;  Burke  had  no  address  or  in- 
sinuation. Men  of  less  talents  are  more  capable  of  succeeding 
by  art,  observation,  and  assiduity.     The  House  dividing.  Lord 


88  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  23. 

North  was  beaten  by  62  to  61,  a  disgraceful  event  for  a  Prime 
Minister.  Since  he  would  oppose  Fox's  motion  contrary  to  his 
declaration,  he  ought  to  have  taken  care  to  have  his  members 
about  him ;  but  he  daily  showed  that  he  was  only  a  subservient 
minister.  The  Scotch  cabal  and  the  Tories  could  sway  him  as 
they  pleased,  and  his  negligence  demonstrated  that  he  followed 
their  dictates,  not  his  own  objects.  In  fact,  he  disliked  his  post, 
and  retained  it  only  from  hopes  of  securing  some  considerable 
emolument  for  his  family.  He  was  indolent,  good-humored,  void 
of  affectation  of  dignity,  void  of  art,  and  his  parts  and  the  good- 
ness of  his  character  would  have  raised  him  much  higher  in  the 
opinion  of  mankind  if  he  had  cared  either  for  power  or  ap- 
plause."— H.  w. 

^'  Two  strong  objections  against  the  old  bill  came  out,  which 
called  loudly  for  reconsideration.  Lord  Mansfield  had  expressed 
doubts  on  the  clandestine  marriages  in  Scotland,  and  had  advised 
some  persons  married  there,  to  be  married  again  legally.  The 
other  was  still  more  crying.  A  young  man  could  marry,  com- 
plying with  the  other  forms,  by  swearing  he  was  of  age.  Should 
it  come  out,  twenty  years  afterwards,  that  he  had  sworn  falsely, 
whether  by  design  or  by  ignorance,  the  marriage  would  be  null, 
and  his  children  irretrievably  bastards." — H.  W. 

May  18.  ^'  Charles  Fox's  Marriage  Bill,  on  which  he  had 
given  himself  no  trouble,  having  taken  away  all  restraints  except 
the  single  one  of  a  register,  was  thrown  out,  without  a  debate,  by 
93  to  34.  He  arrived  from  Newmarket  just  as  his  bill  was 
rejected." — h.  w. 

December.  "  The  year,  and  the  first  part  of  the  session  of 
Parliament,  ended  with  a  new  disposition  of  places,  arranged 
solely  to  make  room  for  Charles  Fox  at  the  Treasury.  Lord 
Edgecombe,  one  of  the  vice-treasurers  of  Ireland,  was  made  to 
give  up  that  opulent  post,  and  take  the  vacant  place  of  Captain 
of  the  Band  of  Pensioners,  with  a  salary  to  make  up  his  loss. — 
Jenkinson,  Lord  Bute's  creature  and  one  of  the  secret  junto, 
succeeded  as  vice-treasurer,  and  Charles  Fox  replaced  Jenkinson 
at  the  Board  of  Treasury." — h.  w. 


1772.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  89 

The  events  and  state  of  parties  in  1772,  as  well  as  the  situa- 
tion in  which  Mr.  Fox  was  placed,  both  in  his  private  and  public 
capacity,  ought  to  be  duly  weighed  by  his,  biographer,  in  tracing 
the  origin  and  growth  of  his  political  principles.  His  father, 
under  whose  auspices  he  had  originally  been  brought  into  Parlia- 
ment, was  sinking  fast  under  disease  and  depression  of  spirits. 
He  was  consequently  less  exposed  to  the  political  impressions 
which  his  father  would  have  inculcated  in  him,  than  during  the 
first  and  second  year  of  his  parliamentary  life.  Even  if  that 
had  not  been  so,  his  father,  though  never  inclined  to  opposition, 
still  less  to  the  individuals  who  then  composed  it,  was  far  from 
satisfied  either  with  the  public  or  private  conduct  of  the  ministers 
or  of  the  King.  Many  of  the  Bedford  party  had  recovered 
influence  and  power,  and  even  high  office  ;  and  for  none  of 
that  party  (Lord  Sandwich  excepted)  had  Lord  Holland  any 
remaining  feelings  of  kindness  or  good-will.  Horace  "VValpole 
would  persuade  us  that  he  was  so  chagrined  at  being  refused  his 
earldom,  that  he  instigated  his  son  to  resign.  I  do  not  believe 
it,  but  I  have  little  doubt  that  he  was  discontented  at  what  he 
considered  (and,  I  believe,  was)  a  breach  of  promise ;  and  that 
his  conversation  on  passing  events,  and  on  those  who  were  in  a 
situation  to  influence  them,  including  the  King,  was  ill  adapted 
to  inculcate  on  a  young  and  generous  mind  any  very  great  attach- 
ment to  their  cause  or  their  persons ;  so  that,  had  Mr.  Fox 
continued  to  receive  his  political  impressions  under  the  paternal 
roof,  he  would  'not  have  been  altogether  unprepared  to  admit 
principles  hostile  to  their  system,  especially  if,  in  pursuance  of 
it,  they  should  stumble  on  some  measure  of  a  novel  nature,  and 
involving  in  it  questions  to  which  neither  he  nor  his  connections 
had  been  previously  pledged.  The  interest  on  the  Middlesex 
election,  and  on  the  whole  of  Wilkes's  conduct  and  fortunes,  was 
in  some  little  degree  subsiding.  As  chance  would  have  it,  a 
measure  liable  to  many  objections,  which  his  father  had  urged 
with  peculiar  energy  and  with  great  success  at  the  most  brilliant 
period  of  his  life,  and  which  were  congenial  to  the  temper  and 
character  of  Mr.  Fox,  was  espoused  by  the  ministers,  or  forced 

8* 


90  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  23. 

upon  them  by  the  King — viz.,  the  Eoyal  Marriage  Act.  Secret 
family  reasons  had  swayed  Lord  Holland  in  resisting  so  vehe- 
mently as  he  did  the  Marriage  Act  of  Lord  Hardwicke's  invention 
in  1753.  But  recollections  yet  more  recent,  and  not  unconnected 
with  their  family,  must  have  made  Lord  Holland,  as  well  as  Mr. 
Fox,  averse  to  the  principle  of  throwing  legal  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  all  intermarriages  between  the  royal  family  and  subjects. 
The  share  this  famous  measure  of  the  Koyal  Marriage  Bill 
had  in  determining  him  to  resiarn  has  been  recorded  in  the 
extracts  from  Walpole,  and  his  own  letter  to  Lord  Ossory ;  and 
the  share  his  conduct  in  that  respect,  as  well  as  other  passages  of 
his  life  about  this  time,  had  in  making  the  King  on  the  throne 
his  personal  enemy,  though  less  susceptible  of  proof,  may,  with- 
out any  want  of  charity,  be  reasonably  conjectured.  It  must, 
indeed,  be  acknowledged,  that  Mr.  Fox's  resignation  was  not  upon 
any  broad  principle  of  public  policy,  and  it  is  nearly  as  clear  that 
neither  the  discontents  he  felt,  nor  the  disapprobation  which  ho 
avowed  of  that  particular  measure,  were  intended  as  a  prelude  to 
active  opposition  to  the  Government,  and  still  less  as  a  step  towards 
connections  with  those  who  opposed  them.  Mr.  Fox  would  at 
that  time  have  shrunk  from  such  a  consequence.  He  would 
.  almost  have  considered  such  an  interpretation  of  his  conduct  as 
an  aspersion ;  but  yet  the  spirited  act  of  resignation,  combined 
with  an  eager  and  able  resistance  to  a  measure  supported  by  the 
Court,  must  have  loosened  very  sensibly  those  shackles  in  which 
his  giant  limbs  had  been  originally  confined.  '  He  abstained, 
indeed,  from  all  party  connection  with  opposition,  and  he  was 
shortly  restored  to  office  ;  but  he  had,  in  the  mean  time,  braced 
his  mind  to  the  independent  exercise  of  his  faculties,  and  he 
had  contracted  much  personal  friendship  with  many  (and  with 
Burke  in  particular),  who  were  capable  and  desirous  of  exciting 
him  to  a  more  elevated  and  glorious  use  of  his  mighty  powers, 
than  the  mere  view  of  advancement  in  place  would  have  suggest- 
ed This  year  of  exclusion  from  office,  no  doubt,  laid  the  seeds 
of  those  principles  which  were  afterwards  brought  into  action  ; 
as  it  undoubtedly  did  of  many  friendships  and  connections  with 


1773.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  91 

4 

persons  -with  whom  it  was  afterwards  his  fate  to  co-operate.  The 
consequences  of  his  exclusion  from  office  on  his  private  habits 
were  not  equally  happy.  He  indulged  more  than  ever  in  his 
passion  for  play,  and  as  this  and  the  ensuing  years  are  the 
period  of  his  great  losses,  I  shall  insert  the  observations  com- 
municated to  me  in  conversation  by  Lord  Egremont,  in  1823,  on 
the  occurrences  of  that  time.  Lord  Egremont  was  convinced,  he 
said,  by  reflection,  aided  by  his  subsequent  experience  of  the  world, 
that  there  was  at  that  time  some  unfair  confederacy  among  some 
of  the  players,  and  that  the  great  losers,  especially  Mr.  Fox,  were 
actually  duped  and  cheated — he  should,  he  said,  have  been  torn  to 
pieces,  and  stoned  by  the  losers  themselves,  for  hinting  such  a 
thing  at  the  time,  and  even  now  those  of  them,  himself  excepted, 
who  survived,  would  exclaim  at  such  a  supposition ;  but  he  was 
nevertheless  satisfied  that  the  immoderate,  constant,  and  unpa- 
ralleled advantages  over  Charles  Fox  and  other  young  men  were 
not  to  be  accounted  for  merely  by  the  difference  of  passing  or 
holding  the  box,  or  the  hazard  of  the  dice.  He  had,  indeed,  no 
suspicions  (any  more  than  the  rest  had)  at  the  time,  but  he  had 
thought  it  much  over  since,  and  he  now  had. 


1773. 

[Li  consequence  of  his  losses  at  play,  imperfectly  compensated 
by  his  winnings  at  Newmarket,  where  he  was  usually  successful, 
Mr.  Fox  became  involved  in  pecuniary  embarrassments  to  a  great 
amount,  from  which,  in  the  succeeding  winter  of  1773-1,  he  was 
in  some  measure  relieved,  by  his  father  coming  forward  and  pur- 
chasing from  his  creditors  the  annuitie^e  had  granted  them. 
For  the  payment  of  some  of  these  annui^R  several  of  his  young 
friends  had  joined  him  in  security,  and  the  securities  being  pur- 
chased with  the  annuities  by  his  father,  who  was  a  public  ac- 
countant, they  were  retained  by  his  agents  till  his  own  accounts 
with  Government  should  be  settled.  It  was  not  till  many  years 
afterwards  that  they  were  released  ;  but  no  money  was  ever  paid 
upon  them  by  the  parties  who  had  contracted  the  engagements. 


92  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  24. 

the  whole  of  the  debts  from  which  he  was  relieved,  amounting 
to  14:0,0001.,  being  discharged  from  Lord  Holland's  own  estate.] 
February  23.  ''  Sir  William  Meredith  moved  to  reconsider  the 
subscription  to  39  articles."  At  the  instigation  of  Archbishop 
of  York  and  University,  "Lord  North  made  a  point  of  throwing 
out  the  motion,  and  earnest  request  of  attendance  was  sent  twice 
to  the  Court  Militia.     Charles  Fox  supported  the  question.'' — 

H.  W. 

[In  the  debates  on  East  India  affairs,  Mr.  Fox  seems  to  have 
taken  a  violent  part  against  Lord  Clive.]  On  General  Burgoyne's 
motion  of  the  21st  of  May,  he  described  Clive  as  "the  origin  of 
all  plunders,  the  source  of  all  robbery  ;"^  [and  in  a  subsequent 
debate  on  the  11th  June,  he  and  Sir  William  Meredith]  "made 
such  unprovoked  philippics  against  Lord  Clive  that  he  quitted 
the  house  with  anger  or  shame." — H.  w. 

"  In  the  summer  of  this  year,  a  woman,  who  had  been  trans- 
ported, and  who,  a  few  years  before,  had  advertised  herself  as  a 
sensible  icoman  who  gave  advice  on  all  emergencies,  for  half  a 
guinea,  was  carried  before  Justice  Fielding  by  a  Quaker,  whom 
she  had  defrauded  of  money  under  the  pretence  of  getting  him  a 
place  by  her  interest  with  Ministers,  to  whom  she  pretended  to 
be  related.  She  called  herself  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Grieve,  and  gave 
herself  for  cousin  to  Lord  North,  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  and  Mrs. 
Fitzroy.  She  had  bribed  Lord  North's  porter  to  let  her  into  his 
house,  and  as  her  dupes  waited  for  her  in  the  street,  they  con- 
cluded she  had  access  to  the  Minister.  Before  Fieldinsr  she  be- 
haved  with  insolence,  abused  the  Quaker,  and  told  him  she  had 
disappointed  him  of  ihe  place  because  he  was  an  immoral  man, 
and  had  had  a  chil^  Her  art  and  address  had  been  so  great 
that  she  had  avoided^eing  culpable  of  any  fraud  for  which  she 
could  be  committed  to  prison,  and  was  dismissed,  the  Quaker 

^  This  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  George  III.  himself,  for  he 
says  to  Lord  North  on  22d  May,  1773,  "I  own  I  am  amazed  that  private 
interest  could  make  so  many  individuals  forget  what  they  owe  to  their 
country,  and  come  to  a  resolution  that  seems  to  approve  of  Lord  Olive's 
rapine." 


1773.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  93 

having  only  power  to  sue  her  at  common  law  for  the  recovery  of 
his  money,  and  for  which  suit  she  was  not  weak  enough  to  wait 
wnen  at  liberty.  But  the  Quaker's  part  of  the  story  would  not 
have  spread  Mrs.  Grrieve's  renown,  if  a  far  more  improbable  dupe 
had  not  been  caught  in  her  snares.  In  a  word,  the  famous 
Charles  Fox  had  been  the  bubble  of  this  woman,  who  undoubt- 
edly had  uncommon  talents  and  a  knowledge  of  the  world.  She 
had  persuaded  Fox,  desperate  with  his  debts,  that  she  could  pro- 
cure for  him  as  a  wife  a  Miss  Phipps,  with  a  fortune  of  80,000/., 
who  was  just  arrived  from  the  West  Indies.  There  was  such  a 
person  coming  over,  but  not  with  half  the  fortune,  nor  known  to 
Mrs.  Grieve.  With  this  bait  she  amused  Charles  for  many 
months,  appointed  meetings,  and  once  persuaded  him  that  as  Miss 
Phipps  liked  a  fair  man,  and  as  he  was  remarkably  black,  that 
he  must  powder  his  eyebrows.  Of  that  intended  interview  he 
was  disappointed  by  the  imaginary  lady's  falling  ill  of  what  was 
afterwards  pretended  to  be  the  smallpox.  After  he  had  waited 
some  time,  Mrs.  Grieve  affected  to  go  to  see  if  Miss  Phipps  was 
a  little  better  and  able  to  receive  her  swain  ;  but  on  opening  the 
door,  a  servant-maid,  who  had  been  posted  to  wait  on  the  stairs  as 
coming  down  with  the  remains  of  a  basin  of  broth,  told  Mrs. 
Grieve  that  Miss  Phipps  was  not  well  enough  to  receive  the  visit. 
Had  a  novice  been  the  prey  of  these  artifices,  it  would  not  have 
been  extraordinary,  but  Charles  Fox  had  been  in  the  world  from  his 
childhood,  and  been  treated  as  a  man  long  before  the  season.  He 
must  have  known  there  could  not  have  been  an  Hon.  Mrs.  Grieve, 
nor  such  a  being  as  she  pretended  to  be.  Indeed,  in  one  stroke 
she  had  singular  finesse  ;  instead  of  asking  him  for  money,  which 
would  have  detected  her  plot  at  once,  she  was  so  artful  as  to  lend 
him  300/.,  or  thereabouts,  and  she  paid>  herself  by  his  chariot 
standing  frequently  at  her  door,  which  served  to  impose  on  her 
more  vulgar  dupes." ^ — H.  w. 

'  I  believe  the  loan  from  Mrs.  Grieve  to  be  a  foolish  and  improbable 
story.  I  have  heard  him  say  she  never  got  or  asked  any  money  from 
him.  The  story,  with  some  variations,  is  introduced  in  one  of  Foote's 
farces. — V.  H. 


94  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  25. 


1774. 

January  26.  On  Robert's  petition  against  the  Lord  Mayor, 
objected  to  by  Sawbridge,  ''  Charles  Fox  supported  it,  and,  by 
Rigb/s  instigation,  abused  George  Grenville's  select  committee 
for  hearing  elections,  which  had  really  restored  some  credit  to 
Parliament,  and  which  the  Court  disliked  as  impartial,  and  de- 
stroying the  weight  of  a  majority  when  petitions  were  tried  there, 
since  a  small  number  would  not  expose  themselves  to  the  odium 
of  injustice  as  a  whole  party  would.  T.  Townshend  observing 
that  Charles  Fox  sat  near  the  bar,  as  his  father  had  used  to  do 
when  he  managed  elections,  said,  the  young  gentleman  seemed 
to  think  he  had,  and  wished  to  recover,  an  hereditary  right  of 
managing  elections.  Rigby,  to  court  Fox,  made  a  panegyric  on 
Lord  Holland,  whom  he  had  used  very  ill,  and  abused  G.  Gren- 
ville's bill.  Townshend,  with  his  usual  quickness,  replied  that 
had  he  been  the  friend  of  Lord  Holland,  or  G.  Grenville  (as 
Rigby  had  been,  and  deserted  both  for  interest),  he  should  not 
have  forfeited  their  friendship." — H.  w. 

"On  the  11th  of  February,  appeared  in  the  ^Public  Adver- 
tiser' a  most  daring  attack  on  the  Speaker,  Sir  F.  Norton,  for 
partiality  in  preventing  the  presentation  of  a  memorial  in  behalf 
of  one  William  Tooke,  a  Norfolk  gentleman,  oppressed  by  Mr. 
De  Grey,  brother  of  the  Chief  Justice,  who  was  soliciting  a  bill 
to  inclose  a  common,  in  which  Tooke  had  property,  and  to  which 
inclosure  Tooke  would  not  give  his  consent.  Tooke  set  his  name 
to  the  publication,  but  it  was  said  to  be  written  by  Parson  Home, 
and  contained  a  representation  of  the  Speaker's  injustice,  which 
appeared,  however,  to  have  been  only  slovenly  hurry." — H.  w. 

"  The  Speaker,  as  soon  as  the  House  met,  made  his  complaint, 
and  said  that  all  he  desired  was  to  be  acquitted  of  partiality. 
The  members  on  whom  he  called  disculpated  him,  and  then  Lord 
North,  Rigby,  and  Charles  Fox  called  for  the  orders  of  the  day, 
and  the  matter  had  like  to  have  ended  there,  but  Mr.  Herbert 
went  up  to  Lord  North,  and  asked  him  if  he  did  not  mean  to 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  95 

vindicate  the  dignity  of  tlie  Speaker  and  of  the  House.  Lord 
Northj  with  his  usual  indolent  indecision,  replied,  he  had  not 
determined  ;  he  must  have  time  to  think  of  it ;  but  Herbert  did 
not  give  him  time,  and  moved  for  vengeance  on  the  printer.  This 
set  the  House  in  a  flame,  and  many  cried  that  now  was  the  time 
to  assert  the  honor  of  the  House  against  the  insolence  of  the 
press.  Lord  North  himself  took  up  spirit  and  spoke  well,  as  he 
always  did  when  he  took  his  part,  and  he  drew  a  ridiculous  pic- 
ture of  a  former  transaction,  to  mortify  Sawbridge  and  the  city 
patriots.  He  said  if  they  sent  for  the  printer,  the  Lord  Mayor 
would  refuse  to  obey  their  order.  The  magistrate  would  think  it 
his  duty,  like  one  of  his  predecessors,  to  be  sent  to  prison,  would 
have  the  comfort  of  martyrdom,  and  would  probably  meet  with 
the  same  gratitude  from  his  fellow-citizens  as  his  predecessor  had 
done.  Dowdeswell  put  Lord  North  in  mind  that  Wilkes  might 
avow  himself  the  author  of  Tooke's  letter,  and  then  what  would 
his  lordship  do  ?  He  remembered,  he  said,  how  often  the  min- 
isters had  shrunk  from  the  charge,  when  it  had  been  necessary 
to  question  and  encounter  Wilkes.  Woodfall,  the  printer,  was 
ordered  to  attend,  and,  on  the  14th  of  February,  Woodfall  ap- 
peared at  the  bar  of  the  House.  He  declared  he  had  received 
the  offensive  paper  from  Parson  Home,  but  in  the  hurry  of  busi- 
ness had  not  perused  it,  only  seeing  two  petitions,  concluded  the 
paper  related  to  common  business  of  the  House,  and  submitted 
himself,  hoping  allowance  would  be  made  for  his  having  exercised 
his  profession  for  twenty  years  without  having  ever  ofi'ended  the 
House  before.  This  behavior  greatly  softened  the  House,  and 
Mr.  Herbert  moved  for  his  being  only  committed  to  the  Sergeant- 
at-Arms ;  but  Charles  Fox,  prompt  to  be  violent  and  to  disgust, 
and  assuming  the  minister,  moved  to  commit  Woodfall  to  New- 
gate, in  defiance,  he  declared,  of  the  city  and  sheriffs,  and  was 
seconded  by  General  Burgoyne ;  but  many  others  objected  to 
the  punishment  as  too  severe,  and  the  courtiers  themselves  were 
against  extremities,  as  Herbert,  Sir  William  Meredith,  and  others, 
were  not  for  violating  the  liberty  of  the  press.  Lord  North  at 
last  said  the  offence  was  too  great  to  be  slightly  passed  over,  but, 


96  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

wishing  to  avoid  a  quarrel  with  the  city  magistrates,  preferred 
the  Gate-house,  which  was  without  their  jurisdiction,  to  Newgate. 
However,  if  a  precedent  of  a  milder  punishment  could  be  found, 
he  would  yield  to  it ;  if  not,  must  tread  in  the  steps  of  our  an- 
cestors, who  had  been  much  more  watchful  over  the  privileges 
of  the  House  than  the  present  generation  were ;  and  he  indis- 
creetly owned  that  the  House  was  got  into  a  scrape,  must 
avoid  it  if  it  could,  at  least  ought  not  to  provoke  it.  A  tedious 
debate  ensued,  everybody  trying  to  procure  unanimity  and  mode- 
ration. At  last  Dowdeswell  pointed  out  a  case  in  the  journals 
exactly  parallel,  only  stronger,  as  it  extended  abuse  on  both 
Houses ;  when  Meres,  the  printer,  was  committed  to  the  Sergeant- 
at-Arms.  This  brought  over  several  to  the  milder  side,  and  Lord 
North  confessed  that  the  case  was  in  point,  and  that  he  must 
submit  to  it,  if  Charles  Fox,  with  whom  he  had  concurred  for 
imprisonment,  would  let  him  off,  though  he  had  bound  him  to 
the  stake.  But  Charles  Fox,  with  the  most  indecent  arrogance, 
stuck  to  his  point,  and  declared  that  he  would  take  the  sense  of 
the  House,  and  Lord  North  was  so  weak  as  to  vote  with  him, 
but  they  were  beaten  by  152  to  68,  Jenkinson,  Dyson,  and  the 
very  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  voting  against  the  minister. 
Home  was  then  ordered  to  attend,  and  Jenkinson  moved  that  it 
might  be  in  custody,  but  that  too  was  overruled,  and  he  was 
ordered  to  attend  on  the  16th.  The  court  was  equally  odious  for 
the  badness  of  its  designs,  and  the  pusillanimity  of  its  execution. 
Lord  North's  conduct  was  irresolute,  Charles  Fox's  presumptuous, 
and  every  step  he  made  added  to  his  unpopularity.^' — H.  av. 

The  indignation  of  Greorge  III.  at  this  transaction  is  thus  ex- 
pressed in  his  correspondence  with  Lord  North  : — 

February  15.  "I  am  greatly  incensed  at  the  presumption 
of  Charles  Fox  in  forcing  you  to  vote  with  him  last  night,  but 
approve  much  of  your  making  your  friends  vote  in  the  majority. 
Indeed,  that  young  man  has  so  thoroughly  cast  off  every  principle 
of  common  honor  and  honesty,  that  he  must  become  as  contemp- 
tible as  he  is  odious.  I  hope  you  will  let  him  know  that  you  are 
not  insensible  of  his  conduct  towards  you.'' 


1774.  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  97 

"  Charles  Fox  being  asked  the  next  day  at  the  club  at  Almack's 
whether  Lord  North  had  not  turned  him  out,  said  aloud,  '  No ; 
but  if  he  does,  I  will  write  a  letter  to  congratulate  and  tell  him 
that,  if  he  had  always  acted  with  the  same  spirit,  I  should  not 
have  dfffered  with  him  yesterday/  '' — H.  w. 

February  16.  A  complaint  was  made  to  the  House  of  a- 
letter  printed  in  the  "Public  Advertiser,"  and  reprinted  in  the 
"Morning  Chronicle.'^  This  paper  was  an  "impudent  invective 
on  the  Revolution.  Indeed,  the  printers  of  newspapers  seemed 
to  be  trying  whether  they  could  not  provoke  the  legislature  to 
persecute  them.  The  'Morning  Post'  had  for  a  twelvemonth 
been  the  grossest  vehicle  of  all  manner  of  scandal."  "It  was 
Charles  Fox  who  made  the  complaint."  "T.  Townshend  took  the 
occasion  of  teasing  and  flinging  in  Lord  North's  teeth  the  pen- 
sions bestowed  by  the  King  on  those  notorious  Jacobites,  Dr. 
Johnson*  and  Dr.  Shebbeare." — H.  w. 

On  February  the  19th,  after  Home  Tooke  had  embarrassed 
Lord  North  by  surrendering  himself  contrary  to  all  expectation, 
appearing  at  the  bar,  and  conducting  himself  with  great  temper 
and  ability  there,  a  debate  ensued  in  which  "Charles  Fox,  struck 
with  Lord  North's  insufficient  behavior,  and  impatient  to  ag- 
grandize himself  at  his  expense,  cautioned  the  House,  the  next 
time  they  should  be  concerned  in  such  a  business,  not  to  ascribe 
any  particular  merit  to  a  printer  in  giving  up  his  author,  and  he 
rudely  blamed  Lord  North  for  his  imprudence  in  promising 
Woodfall  indemnity  for  betraying  Home;  he  thought  printers 
more  culpable  than  authors,  and  that  the  chief  punishment  ought 

1  I  tliink  I  have  heard  that  Dr.  Johnson  happened  to  be  in  the  gallery 
that  day,  and  was  much  gratified  by  Mr.  Fox's  reply  to  Mr.  T.  Towns- 
hend in  which  he  approved  of  the  pension  to  Johnson,  and  without  being 
aware  of  his  presence,  spoke  with  great  warmth  in  his  praise.  Even  his 
subsequent  exertions  in  favor  of  American  liberty  never  cancelled  this 
obligation.  In  1784,  in  the  heat  of  the  Westminster  election.  Dr.  John- 
son bade  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  surmount  his  scruples  and  vote  for  Mr. 
Fox,  saying — "I  am  for  the  lung  against  Fox,  but  for  Fox  against  Pitt." 
—V.  H. 

VOL.  I. — 9 


9S  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

to  fall  on  the  former.  Colonel  Barre  drew  a  picture,  with  much 
wit,  of  Lord  North,  counselled  on  one  hand  bj  Wedderburne, 
on  the  other  by  the  youngest  man  in  the  house,  Charles  Fox, 
both  of  whom  he  painted  well  and  extolled  ironically :  for  him- 
self, as  he  had  been  a  soldier  and  used  to  disposing  troops,  he 
would  advise  the  noble  lord  to  place  the  young  gentleman  on  the 
right,  who  had  recommended  to  him  not  to  be  rash,  and  the 
faithful  Achates,  his  learned  friend,  on  the  left,  and  then  he 
would  find  common  sense  on  one  side,  and  law  on  the  other." — 

H.  W. 

February  23.  King  George  III.  to  Lord  North.  ^'I  think 
Mr.  Charles  Fox  would  have  acted  more  becoming  to  you  and 
himself,  if  he  had  absented  himself  from  the  House ;  for  his  con- 
duct is  not  to  be  attributed  to  conscience,  but  to  his  aversion  to 
all  restraints," 

February  24.  Charles  Fox  was  dismissed,  for  his  late  be- 
havior to  Lord  North,  from  being  a  Lord  of  the  Treasury. — h.  w. 

Horace  Walpole,  under  the  date  of  the  following  day,  says, 
speaking  of  Lord  North  :  '^With  his  usual  hurry  after  indolence 
he  turned  out  Charles  Fox,  as  a  threat  to  those  who  might  incline 
to  desert,  but  without  effect." 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  99 


BOOK    THE    THIRD. 

1774. 

*In  1774  we  may  place  the  real  commencement  of  Mr.  Fox's 
political  career.  In  early  life,  though  surrounded  by  the  political 
friends  of  his  father,  and  involved  in  his  resentments,  though 
admired  for  his  quickness  in  argument,  and  boldness  in  discus- 
sion, he  seems  to  have  given  but  little  earnest  attention  to  the 
questions  of  the  day.  Part  of  this  indifference  to  grave  parlia- 
mentary debate  may  be  traced  to  the  violence  of  his  attachment 
to  other  and  less  worthy  pursuits;  to  his  passion  for  gaming, 
and  his  indulgence  in  all  the  vices  of  headstrong  and  unbridled 
youth.      -^ 

But  part  of  this  indifference  may  be  traced  to  another  cause, 
and  it  is  necessary  for  a  due  understanding  of  Mr.  Fox's  cha- 
racter to  give  in  this  place  an  outline  of  the  period  in  which  he 
had  completed  his  education,  and  entered  the  House  of  Commons. 
There  is  no  part  of  our  history  since  the  Revolution,  which  is  so 
little  creditable  to  the  Government  or  to  the  people,  as  that  which 
elapsed  between  the  signature  of  the  peace  of  Paris,  and  the  end 
of  the  American  War. 

The  first  princes  of  the  house  of  Hanover  who  reigned  in  this 
country  had  greatly  contributed,  by  their  very  ignorance  of  its 
manners  and  its  laws,  to  consolidate  its  free  constitution.  Inca- 
pable of  leading  a  political  party  like  Charles  I.,  or  a  religious 
sect  like  James  11. ,  they  naturally  sought  the  aid  of  the  men 
most  able  to  conduct  the  business  of  a  complex  government,  and 
secure  a  disputed  throne.  The  affairs  of  the  country  had  been 
conducted  by  Walpole,  by  Pelham,  and  by  Pitt :  men  of  different 


100  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

tempers,  indeed,  but  each  of  them  qualified  by  comprehensive 
knowledge,  by  parliamentary  experience,  and  by  firmness  of  cha- 
racter to  lead  the  great  Whig  party  which  had  founded  and  had 
maintained  the  Hanover  succession.  The  means  employed  by 
these  three  men  were  various,  but  all  fitted  to  the  end  they  had 
in  view.  Each  had  observed  with  scrupulous  fidelity  the  laws 
which  secure  personal  liberty.  At  no  time  was  the  freedom  of 
the  subject  more  fully  enjoyed  than  in  the  period  from  1720  to 
1760.  Upon  religious  questions  each  was  careful  not  to  revive 
past  heats,  and  without  taking  off  the  fetters  of  the  dissenter, 
not  to  aggravate  the  weight  of  his  chains.  Upon  financial  mat- 
ters and  foreign  policy,  there  was  a  manifest  diversity.  Walpole, 
taking  the  helm  of  affairs  soon  after  a  costly  war,  and  immedi- 
ately after  the  South  Sea  fever,  was  careful  in  husbanding  the 
resources  of  the  country,  in  improving  commerce  by  taking  off 
duties  on  raw  materials,  in  relieving  the  subject  from  taxes,  in 
holding  fast  to  a  most  scrupulous  maintenance  of  public  credit. 
Pelham  had  followed  in  the  same  course,  and  while  lowering  the 
interest  of  the  public  debt,  had  seen  the  Three  per  Cents,  rise  to 
par  under  his  administration.  Walpole,  in  order  to  preserve  his 
system,  had  paid  a  minute  attention  to  foreign  affairs.  But 
while  using  the  name  and  influence  of  England  in  all  continental 
disputes,  he  had  steadily  employed  that  name  and  influence  for 
the  purpose  of  preserving  or  restoring  peace.  Nor  did  the  eager 
desires  of  the  Court,  or  the  public  clamor  of  the  nation,  alter 
his  views,  or  induce  him  to  swerve  from  his  path. 

Mr.  Pitt  took  a  different  course.  He  found  the  nation  drifting 
into  war  from  the  negligence  or  timidity  of  the  Administration 
to  which  he  succeeded.  He  did  not  attempt  to  ward  off  hostili- 
ties, but  framed  his  measures  boldly  with  a  view  to  cripple  his 
principal  enemy. 

The  part  which  England  took  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  had 
its  origin  exclusively  in  her  American  quarrel  with  France.  In 
Europe,  her  old  and  natural  ally  was  Austria.  It  was  not  her 
interest  to  see  that  ally  despoiled  of  Silesia,  and  so  precarious 
was  her  friendship  with  Prussia,  that  a  few  months  before  the 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  101 

breaking  out  of  the  war,  she  had  been  on  the  point  of  hostilities 
with  that  power  on  maritime  differences. 

In  America,  the  interests  of  England  were  more  nearly  con- 
cerned. France,  holding  Louisiana  in  the  south,  and  Canada  in 
the  north,  was  engaged  in  forming  a  line  of  posts  to  the  west, 
which  should  effectually  check  the  growth  of  the  British  Ameri- 
can colonies.  The  colonists  vigorously  attacked  the  line  of  forts ; 
Washington  drew  his  sword  for  the  first  time  against  French 
aggression ;  and  when  the  American  colonists  themselves  were 
threatened  with  a  large  regular  force  from  France,  they  appealed 
to  their  mother  country  for  safety  and  for  succor. 

The  English  Grovernment,  however  averse  to  such  a  quarrel, 
did  not  choose  to  decline  it.  Orders  were  sent  to  our  naval  com- 
manders which  brought  on  a  conflict. 

At  the  same  period  a  new  face  had  been  given  to  the  affairs  of 
Europe.  While  our  relations  with  Prussia  were  unfriendly,  the 
ancient  alliance  of  England  with  the  Austrian  empire  was  not 
entirely  dissolved;  so  that  politicians  might  reasonably  speculate 
on  a  war  of  England  and  Austria  against  Prussia  and  France. 
But  these  were  days  of  Court  intrigue,  and  a  very  singular  one 
at  this  moment  altered  the  face  of  Europe. 

Maria  Theresa,  with  all  the  pride  of  Charles  Y.,  had  seen  one 
of  the  ancient  provinces  of  her  empire  conquered  by  a  young 
rival.  She  could  not  reconcile  herself  to  the  loss  of  Silesia,  and 
the  diminution  of  her  fame.  It  occurred  to  her,  or  was  suggest- 
ed, that  the  ancient  enemy  of  Austria  might  be  made  an  instru- 
ment in  rebuilding  the  fortunes  of  her  house.  Madame  de  Pom- 
padour, and  the  Abbe  de  Bernis,  eagerly  caught  at  a  plan  which 
miffht  minister  to  the  ambition  of  the  mistress,  and  the  fortunes 
of  the  sycophant.  France  and  Austria  were  thus  united  to  de- 
spoil Prussia  of  her  new  conquest;  out  of  these  materials  Mr.  Pitt 
worked  up  the  fabric  of  a  successful  and  glorious  war.  By 
furnishing  to  Frederic  of  Prussia  the  means  of  victory  at  Bosbach, 
he  crippled  the  power  of  France  in  America  and  on  the  seas. 
^'I  conquered  America  in  Oermany,"  was  his  justifiable  boast  at 
the  end  of  the  war. 

9* 


102  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  25. 

When  that  war  was  concluded,  Mr.  Pitt  was  no  longer  minister. 
After  Lord  Bute  had  held  the  rudder  for  an  instant,  and  had 
shrunk  appalled  from  the  roar  of  the  waves,  and  the  dark  prospect 
hefore  him,  Mr.  Grrenville  accepted  the  post  of  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  His  views  were 
honest,  but  narrow ;  he  had  been  unable  to  comprehend  the  great- 
ness of  Mr.  Pitt,  and  he  had  served  under  him  in  the  House  of 
Commons  without  catching  a  spark  of  his  genius,  or  comprehend- 
ing the  vision  of  his  far-seeing  eye.  To  his  mind  the  seventy 
millions  of  debt  incurred  by  the  war,  the  lenity  allowed  in  the 
admission  of  accounts,  the  deficiency  of  contributions  from 
America  in  a  cause  that  was  their  own,  comprised  the  whole 
question  before  him. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  sufficient  revenue  for  defraying  the  charge 
of  the  debt,  he  framed  fifty-five  resolutions  imposing  stamp-duties 
on  the  American  colonies,  and  he  devised  a  system  of  regulations 
to  defeat  the  contraband  trade  carried  on  between  the  Americans 
and  foreign  countries.  From  his  projected  stamp-duties  in 
America  he  expected  to  raise  a  revenue  of  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds !  Never  were  the  interests  of  a  great  country  sacrificed 
to  such  paltry  and  peddling  considerations. 

The  American  colonies  had  never  before  been  subject  to  direct 
taxes.  The  unwise  regulations  which  England,  like  other  coun- 
tries, had  adopted  for  confining  the  trade  of  the  colonies  to  the 
mother  country,  had  been  rendered  tolerable  by  the  discreet  for- 
bearance with  which  they  were  enforced.  The  colonies  resented 
the  attempt  to  impose  internal  taxes,  and  they  fretted  under  the 
pressure  of  minute  cords  which  galled  and  confined  their  com- 
merce. 

In  order  to  estimate  fully  the  want  of  wisdom  shown  by  Mr. 
Grrenville,  some  other  circumstances  must  be  viewed  in  connection 
with  his  policy. 

The  North  American  colonies  had  been  founded  by  men  of  the 
freest  spirit,  and  the  most  popular  notions,  both  of  religion  and 
policy.  Some  had  fled  from  Laud  and  Straiford  in  their  own 
country;  others  had  been  impelled  by  a  desire  to  found  a  new 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  ^  103 

state  of  society  in  an  unfrequented  land.  The  forms  of  the 
English  Church  had  never  been  introduced  with  success.  The 
outline  of  our  political  constitution  had  been  so  far  copied  as  to 
impress  the  colonists  with  the  belief  that  all  taxes,  in  order  to  be 
legal,  must  be  voted  by  their  own  representatives,  convened  by 
their  Governor,  in  an  assembly  of  the  Commons. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  freedom  of  the  colonies, 
their  subjection  to  the  mother  country  had  hitherto  been  main- 
tained by  the  circumstances  of  their  position.  With  Canada  on 
the  one  side,  and  Louisiana  on  the  other,  they  felt  as  keen  a 
rivalry  with  France  as  the  inhabitants  of  Southampton  or 
Plymouth.  They  looked  to  British  fleets  and  British  regiments 
to  protect  them  from  French  aggression,  and  while  they  felt  as 
Englishmen  in  our  national  wars,  they  contributed  liberally  as 
colonists  to  ward  oflf  dangers  threatening  their  own  territory  and 
their  own  trade. 

But  the  very  success  of  England  in  the  late  war  had  weakened 
the  connection.  A  French  army,  holding  Quebec,  commanded 
by  a  distinguished  general,  had  disappeared;  a  British  province 
was  in  its  place.  The  sagacity  of  the  Marquis  of  Montcalm  had 
enabled  him  to  predict  the  consequences  of  such  a  change.  In 
the  disaster  of  his  country  he  had  drawn  consolation  from  the 
reflection  that  the  British  colonies,  relieved  from  the  dread  of 
France,  would  no  longer  preserve  the  same  attachment,  or  practise 
an  equal  submission.  Some  persons  in  England  had  made  simi- 
lar predictions.  In  these  new  circumstances  any  provocation  to 
the  colonies  was  doubly  dangerous. 

The  Stamp  Act  produced  the  greatest  excitement  in  America. 
It  was  reprinted  with  a  death's  head  prefixed  instead  of  the  royal 
arms,  and  a  name  was  given  to  it  not  inappropriate — ^'England's 
folly,  and  America's  bane."  At  Boston  the  colors  of  the  ship- 
ping were  hoisted  half-mast  high,  the  church  bells  were  muffled 
and  tolled  a  funeral  knell.  More  deliberate  resistance  followed. 
Proceedings  in  the  courts  of  justice  were  suspended  that  stamps 
might  not  be  required.  Merchants  refused  to  pay  debts  incurred 
for  English  importations.     Associations  were  formed  for  the  ex- 


104  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

elusive  use  of  colonial  manufactures.  The  collectors,  sent  over 
to  distribute  the  stamps,  were  maltreated,  and  resigned  in  a  panic. 
Finally,  public  offices  and  private  houses  were  pillaged  by  a  dis- 
orderly mob. 

These  riots  took  place  in  August,  1765.  When  the  news 
reached  England,  a  new  ministry  was  in  power.  Lord  Rocking- 
ham was  at  the  head  of  that  ministry ;  Greneral  Conway  was  their 
leader  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Mr.  Burke,  although  then 
little  known,  was  the  confidential  adviser  of  the  head  of  the 
Grovernment. 

The  situation  was  perilous  and  perplexing.  It  was  impossible 
to  pass  unnoticed  the  flagrant  disobedience  of  America.  It  was 
folly  to  persist  in  executing  an  unjust  and  unwise  law. 

Parliament  met  on  the  14th  of  January,  1766.  Then  occurred 
that  famous  debate  on  the  right  of  Great  Britain  to  tax  the  colo- 
nies, which,  in  fact,  decided  the  question.  Mr.  Pitt  rose.  After 
speaking  of  the  large  proportion  of  property  held  by  the  Com- 
mons of  England  compared  with  the  Crown,  the  Lords,  and  the 
Church,  he  concluded  his  argument  by  saying — "  When,  there- 
fore, in  this  House  we  give  and  grant,  we  give  and  grant  what  is 
our  own.  But  in  an  American  tax,  what  do  we  do  ?  We,  your 
Majesty's  Commons  of  Great  Britain,  give  and  grant  to  your 
Majesty — what  ?  Our  own  property  ?  No  !  We  give  and  grant 
to  your  Majesty  the  property  of  your  Majesty's  Commons  of 
America.     It  is  an  absurdity  in  terms." 

Mr.  Grenville  made  a  labored  reply,  and  seems  to  have  quoted 
the  precedents  of  Chester  and  of  Durham. 

Mr.  Pitt  rose  again.  There  was  some  doubt  whether  he  was 
in  order,  but  as  only  part  of  the  Address  had  been  read,  and  the 
desire  of  the  House  to  hear  him  was  great,  he  was  allowed  to 
proceed. 

He  treated  Mr.  Grenville  with  scorn  and  sarcasm.  He  pro- 
claimed aloud  his  sympathy  with  America.  "The  gentleman 
tells  us  America  is  obstinate;  America  is  almost  in  open  rebel- 
lion. I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.  Three  millions  of 
people  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty,  as  voluntarily  to 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  105 

submit  to  be  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  make 
slaves  of  the  rest.  I  come  not  here,  armed  at  all  points,  with 
law  cases  and  Acts  of  Parliament,  with  the  statute-books, 
doubled  down  in  dog' sears,  to  defend  the  cause  of  liberty ;  if  I 
had,  I  myself  would  have  cited  the  two  cases  of  Chester  and  of 
Durham." 

He  concluded  with  this  advice  : — 

'^  Upon  the  whole,  I  will  beg  leave  to  tell  the  House  what  is 
precisely  my  opinion.  It  is  that  the  Stamp  Act  be  repealed, 
absolutely,  totally,  and  immediately.  That  the  reason  for  the 
repeal  be  assigned,  that  it  was  founded  on  an  erroneous  principle. 
At  the  same  time,  let  the  sovereign  authority  of  this  country 
over  the  colonies  be  asserted  in  as  strong  terms  as  can  be  devised, 
and  made  to  extend  to  every  kind  of  legislation  whatsoever. 
That  we  may  bind  their  trade,  confine  their  manufactures,  and 
exercise  every  power  whatsoever,  except  only  that  of  taking  their 
money  from  their  pockets  without  their  own  consent. '^ 

Two  great  questions  were  at  this  time  pending.  The  one  was 
the  taxation  of  America;  the  other  was  the  government  of  Eng- 
land by  party,  or  by  the  Court. 

It  is  not  true  to  say,  as  the  vulgar  at  that  time  believed,  that 
George  III.  was  governed  by  Lord  Bute,  and  that  he  sought  to 
favor  the  Scotch  to  the  prejudice  of  the  English.  But  there  was 
truth  in  the  accusation  which  is  brought  in  Mr.  Burke's  "  Essay 
on  the  Causes  of  the  present  Discontents.''  The  substance  of 
that  accusation  may  be  told  very  shortly. 

After  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  two  great  parties  called 
Whigs  and  Tories  had  endeavored  to  carry  into  effect  their  difier- 
ent  views  of  government  by  means  of  a  majority  in  the  two 
Houses  of  Parliament.  The  personal  ascendency  of  William 
III.,  however,  had  enabled  him  to  employ  the  party  to  which  he 
was  most  inclined  at  the  time,  and  to  give  way  to  his  predilec- 
tions in  favor  of  Tory  doctrines,  without  entirely  breaking  with 
the  Whigs.  Queen  Anne  for  many  years  governed  through  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough  and  the  Whigs ;  at  the  end  of  her  reign 
by  Lord  Oxford,  Bolingbroke,  and  the  Tories.     The   popular 


106  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

favor  fluctuated  from  one  of  these  parties  to  the  other,  and  the 
last  House  of  Commons  of  Queen  Anne  was  more  decidedly  for 
High  Church  and  Prerogative  than  any  Parliament  which  had 
met  since  the  accession  of  Charles  the  Second. 

When,  on  the  death  of  Queen  Anne,  the  Whig  party  obtained 
the  ascendency,  and  Dr.  Arbuthnot  was  forced  to  exclaim, 
Fuimus  Tories,  Lord  Bolingbroke,  who  had  led  the  Tory  party 
in  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  days  of  their  triumph,  began, 
in  despair  of  restoring  that  victorious  position,  to  promulgate  a 
new  system,  and  to  proclaim  that  "party  was  the  madness  of 
many  for  the  gain  of  a  few.'' 

Among  other  charges  against  party  it  was  alleged  that  the 
Sovereign  was  enthralled  by  it,  and  was  prevented  by  the  in- 
trigues and  dictation  of  a  combined  faction  from  advancing  merit, 
and  exercising  freely  his  constitutional  prerogatives. 

There  was  something  very  plausible  in  this  doctrine,  and  when 
Lord  Bute  planted  it  in  the  tenacious  mind  of  his  young  pupil, 
it  spread  its  roots  firmly  around,  and  clung  to  his  whole  frame, 
and  thought,  and  conduct.  Lord  Bute  himself  fled  in  afiright; 
his  subsequent  attempts  to  govern  were  coldly  viewed  by  his 
master,  but  the  lessons  he  had  taught  were  kept  in  remembrance 
and  carefully  practised. 

The  proofs  of  the  intention,  and  rooted  desire  of  George  III. 
to  shake  ofi"  party,  are  to  be  found  in  his  own  correspondence, 
confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  those  who  took  the  most  active 
part  in  the  politics  of  the  time. 

While  the  King  was  on  his  side  laboring  to  undermine  party, 
Mr.  Pitt,  whose  power  and  fame  had  rested  on  party  support, 
was  unhappily  working  to  the  same  end.  He  was  prompted  to 
this  course,  partly  by  disgust  at  the  conduct  of  Newcastle  in  the 
celebrated  affair  of  his  proposal  for  a  Spanish  war — partly  by  a 
wild  and  irregular  ambition  which  prompted  him  to  imagine  that 
with  his  uncertain  health  and  ignorance  of  finance  he  could  direct 
alone  all  the  affairs  of  administration. 

In  this  temper  he  gave  his  support  to  the  Rockingham  Minis- 
try on  great  measures,  but  withheld  from  them  the  more  valuable 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  107 

aid  of  his  confidence.  "Pardon  me,  gentlemen/^  he  had  said 
with  dramatic  action  :  "  confidence  is  a  plant  of  slow  growth  in 
an  aged  bosom.''  In  the  same  spirit  he  resisted  every  offer  of 
Lord  Rockingham  to  join  the  Ministry,  and  coldly  replied  that 
he  would  unbosom  himself  only  to  the  King.  The  King  thus 
became  aware  that  upon  any  difference  with  his  Ministry  he 
might  look  to  Mr.  Pitt,  a  man  of  great  popularity  and  fame,  to 
supply  their  places. 

Yet  Lord  Rockingham  was  pursuing,  through  difficulties  and 
obstructions,  a  course  in  which  Mr.  Pitt  ought  to  have  warmly 
supported  him.  He  was  endeavoring  to  heal  the  breach  with 
America;  to  put  an  end  to  domestic  struggles  injurious  at  once 
to  authority  and  to  liberty ;  in  short,  to  restore  the  ascendency  of 
Whig  principles  by  means  of  a  Whig  Administration. 

Unfortunately  the  means  were  not  as  efficient  as  the  end  was 
noble.  Lord  Rockingham  himself  was  no  orator.  When  Lord 
Sandwich,  with  ready  talent  and  with  much  bitterness,  attacked 
the  Prime  Minister  in  the  House  of  Lords,  he  made  no  reply, 
and  Lord  Gower,  addressing  Lord  Sandwich,  said,  "How  cruel 
it  is  of  you  to  worry  the  poor  dumb  animal  so  I" 

In  the  House  of  Commons  the  Ministry  were  led  by  General 
Conway.  Horace  Walpole,  his  most  intimate  friend,  has  said  of 
Conway  :  "His  heart  was  so  cold  that  it  wanted  all  the  beams  of 
popular  applause  to  kindle  it  into  action.''  However  this  may 
be,  his  character  was  not  such  as  to  animate  his  followers.  With 
great  integrity  of  purpose  he  wavered  between  principle  and  in- 
terest, according  to  the  wishes  of  his  friends  and  advisers.  Of 
these  friends  and  advisers  the  most  sagacious  was  Horace  Wal- 
pole. Conway  had  little  knowledge  of  the  world ;  Walpole  had 
a  great  deal.  Conway  wished  for  the  public  good;  Walpole  cared 
for  nothing  so  much  as  the  indulgence  of  his  own  hatred  and  re- 
sentments. Thus  he  often  imposed  on  the  simplicity  of  his  friend, 
and  at  length  induced  him  to  take  a  part  injurious  to  his  country 
and  fatal  to  his  own  reputation^  in  order  to  keep  out  of  office  men 
who  were  the  objects  of  Walpole' s  petty  spite  or  malignant 
rancor. 


108  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  25. 

The  other  leader  of  the  Rockingham  Ministry  in  the  House  of 
Commons  was  Dowdeswell,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  With 
considerable  knowledge  of  finance,  and  with  the  entire  confidence 
of  his  friends,  Dowdeswell  was  clumsy  and  reserved;  he  had 
neither  the  law  and  sense  of  Grenville,  nor  the  brilliancy  of 
Townshend,  still  less  had  he  the  purple  oratory  of  Pitt. 

Burke,  ostensibly  the  Secretary,  and  privately  the  director  of 
Lord  Rockingham,  was  known  to  the  world  only  as  an  Irish 
author,  and  with  his  fame  as  an  orator  only  in  the  bud,  he  could 
have  little  or  no  influence  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  Rockingham  Ministry  fell,  as  the  Grenville  Ministry  had 
fallen,  under  the  displeasure  of  the  Court.  General  Conway 
hesitated  to  support  a  grant  for  the  King's  brothers,  which  Lord 
Rockingham  had  promised  the  King  to  introduce.  The  dissen- 
sions of  the  Cabinet  were  noised  abroad.  Lord  Sandwich,  writing 
to  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  observed,  that  the  question  of  the 
princes  was  likely  to  be  as  fatal  to  the  existing  Ministry  as  that 
of  the  regency  had  proved  to  their  predecessors.  Secret  overtures 
were  made  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  Mr,  Grenville.  Mr.  Pitt 
was  again  appealed  to  by  Lord  Rockingham ;  but  he  persisted  in 
his  former  answer,  that  he  would  only  unbosom  himself  to  the 
King. 

At  length  the  Chancellor  (Lord  Northington),  either  convinced 
that  the  continuance  of  so  weak  a  ministry  was  not  for  the  public 
advantage,  or  fearing  to  be  hopelessly  swept  away  in  the  ebb  tide, 
told  the  King  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  Administration  could  not 
last.  The  King  sent  for  Mr.  Pitt,  and  intrusted  to  him  the  for- 
mation of  a  ministry. 

The  manner  in  which  Mr.  Pitt  executed  his  task  has  been 
portrayed  in  one  of  Mr.  Burke's  most  successful  passages.  No 
lapse  of  time  can  weaken  the  colors  of  that  picture.  Indeed,  the 
more  we  inquire  into  the  details  which  belong  to  the  formation 
of  Lord  Chatham's  Ministry,  the  more  we  shall  be  struck  with 
the  fidelity  of  Mr.  Burke's  painting.  One  of  the  most  remarka- 
ble of  his  arrangements,  and  most  faithful  of  important  conse- 
quences, was  that  which  related  to  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  109 

Exchequer.  It  had  been  held,  under  the  Rockingham  Adminis- 
tration, by  Mr.  Dowdeswell.  The  office  of  Paymaster  had  been 
held  at  the  same  period  by  Mr.  Charles  Townshend,  a  brilliant 
wit  without  principles,  moral  or  political,  and  without  industry 
to  fit  him  for  a  laborious  office.  Mr.  Pitt  conceived  the  project 
of  obtaining  the  office  of  Paymaster  for  his  relative  Mr.  James 
Grenville,  and  for  this  purpose  he  offered  to  Mr.  Charles  Towns- 
hcnd  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  Mr.  Townshend 
declared  himself  very  unwilling  to  exchange  an  office  of  7000/. 
a  year  for  one  of  2500/. ',  he  even  notified  his  refusal  to  the  King, 
when  Mr.  Pitt  thought  he  had  accepted  j  but  being  at  length 
forced  to  resign,  he  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
took  charge  of  the  finances  of  the  country  rather  than  remain 
out  of  office.  The  most  extraordinary  part  of  the  story  is,  that 
Mr.  James  Grrenville,  after  all,  refused  the  office  of  Paymaster. 

Another  part  of  this  strange  combination  was  the  new  position 
of  Mr.  Conway.  He  had  been  made  Secretary  of  State  by  Lord 
Kockino;ham,  and  ought  to  have  resii^ned  when  Lord  Rocking- 
ham,  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  Mr.  Dowdeswell  left  office ; 
but  Mr.  Walpole  did  not  choose  that  this  should  be  so.  He 
pretended  that  Mr.  Conway's  fortune  could  not  bear  what  Mr. 
Conway's  honor  clearly  required  j  so  Mr.  Conway  remained  Se- 
cretary of  State  and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  But  as 
Mr.  Conway  was  a  man  of  scruples,  he  soon  afterwards  stipulated 
that  he  should  not  be  bound  by  the  decisions  of  the  cabinet  to 
which  he  belonged,  and  that  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  oppose  in 
the  House  of  Commons  the  measures  of  the  Ministry  of  which 
he  was  the  organ! 

It  would  seem  that  confusion  could  scarcely  go  beyond  this  ; 
but,  as  if  to  confound  still  further  that  confusion,  Mr.  Pitt,  the 
nominal  head  of  the  Ministry,  fell  ill,  and  refused  to  be  spoken 
to  on  political  subjects.  With  some  intervals  of  large  projects, 
but  none  of  efficient  business,  he  fell  into  a  state  of  physical  and 
mental  debility,  and  became  enveloped  in  an  impenetrable  cloud. 
The  King   proposed  to  send  the  Duke  of  Grafton  to  him ;    he 

VOL.  I. — 10 


110  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  25. 

would  not  see  the  colleague  of  his  choice.  The  King  then  pro- 
posed to  pay  him  a  visit  himself,  and  ask  his  advice  j  Lord  Chat- 
ham respectfully  declined  the  honor.  Sometimes  he  was  at 
Hampstead,  confined  to  his  room  ;  at  one  time  at  the  inn  at  Marl- 
borough, where  he  dressed  up  all  the  waiters  in  his  livery  ;  every- 
where he  kept  himself  secluded,  and  the  camp  in  vain  bewailed 
the  absence  of  Achilles.^ 

It  may  well  be  supposed  that  a  ministry  so  formed  and  so 
carried  on  could  only  produce  embarrassment  in  the  public  ser- 
vice, and  weakness  in  Parliament.  An  arrangement  devised  for 
the  settlement  of  the  affairs  of  the  East  India  Company  was 
rejected  by  that  body.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  having 
proposed  the  renewal  of  a  four-shilling  land-tax,  was  defeated  by 
a  union  of  the  Grenvilles  and  Rockinghams,  and  the  tax  reduced 
to  three  shillings  in  the  pound. 

It  was  obvious  that  on  this  defeat  the  Ministry  ought  to  have 
resigned,  or  to  have  largely  reduced  the  expenditure.  Neither 
of  these  courses  was  taken.  Charles  Townshend  conceived  a 
plan  for  carrying  into  effect  Mr.  Grenville's  principle  of  taxing 
America,  without  exposing  himself  to  Mr.  Grenville's  failure. 
In  an  evil  hour  he  proposed  a  duty  on  tea,  to  be  levied  in  Ameri- 
can ports.  It  is  obvious  that  such  a  tax  was  as  obnoxious  as 
the  tax  on  stamps  to  Mr.  Pitt's  celebrated  reproach,  "  We  give 
and  grant — what  ? — our  own  money  ? — no ;  the  money  of  the 
people  of  America."  Where  was  Mr.  Pitt  ? — at  the  head  of  the 
Ministry.  The  tax  was  also  open  to  all  those  objections  of  im- 
policy which  had  induced  Mr.  Conway  to  move  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act.  Where  was  Mr.  Conway  ? — he  was  Secretary  of 
State,  and  the  leader  of  the  Ministry  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

This  deplorable  error  was  the  second  source  of  all  the  waters 
of  strife  which  so  soon  overflowed.  Such  was  the  effect  of  the 
selfish  ambition  of  Lord  Chatham — of  the  infirm  purpose  of  Mr. 
Conway.     Lord  Chatham,  indeed,  had  for  the  moment  an  excuse; 

^  Lord  MaLon  disbelieves  the  story  of  dressing  up  the  waiters ;  Lord 
Shelburne,  however,  told  the  story  to  his  son,  the  present  Lord  Lands- 
downe,  and  can  scarcely  have  been  mistaken. — J.  R. 


1774.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  Ill 

his  intellects  were  darkened  by  disease.  But  Mr.  Conway  had 
none,  and  he  sheltered  himself  under  a  plea  as  paltry  as  his  act 
was  discreditable.  He  declared  himself  at  liberty  to  vote  against 
any  measure  of  which  he  disapproved,  thus  weakening  all  govern- 
ment, and  keeping  office  without  dignity  or  responsibility. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  slight  sketch  to  give  an  adequate  con- 
ception of  the  mischief  which  ensued.  The  King,  by  seeking  to 
elevate  prerogative,  exposed  himself  to  insulting  remonstrances, 
and  repeated  indignities.  The  Ministry,  deprived  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham and  Lord  Shelburne,  were  divided,  baffled,  and  scorned. 
The  sham  patriot  Wilkes  triumphed  over  the  Crown,  the  Minis- 
try, and  the  House  of  Commons,  and  reigned  in  the  hearts  of 
a  people  he  despised.  On  the  great  question  of  taxing  America, 
the  conduct  of  the  Ministry  was  totally  unworthy  of  respect.  It 
was  proposed  in  the  Cabinet  by  the  Duke  of  Grrafton,  First  Lord 
of  the  Treasury,  on  the  1st  of  May,  1769,  to  repeal  the  duties 
on  tea,  paper,  glass,  and  colors  imported  into  America.  This 
proposal  was  supported  by  Lord  Camden,  General  Conway,  and 
Lord  Granby,  but  being  opposed  by  the  Lord  President,  Lord 
Hillsborough,  Lord  Rochford,  Lord  North,  and  Lord  Weymouth, 
the  article  of  tea  was  left  out,  and  the  Prime  Minister,  defeated 
by  a  majority  of  one,  was  content  to  preside  over  councils  he 
could  not  guide.  But  more  than  this,  Lord  Hillsborough  wrote 
a  circular  to  the  colonies,  founded  on  a  minute  which  was  not 
submitted  to  the  Cabinet,  and  of  which  neither  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  nor  the  Lord  Chancellor  approved.  At  one  time  the 
Duke  of  Grafton  offered  to  resign  ;  the  Rockinghams,  the  Bed- 
fords,  and  the  Grenvilles,  attempted  a  concert  and  produced  only 
a  quarrel.  At  length  an  Administration  was  formed,  which  had 
at  least  the  merit  of  having  a  responsible  head. 

Frederick  Lord  North,  the  eldest  son  of  the  Earl  of  Guildford, 
represented  the  old  Tory  politics  of  that  family.  He  had  boasted 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  he  had  voted  against  all  popular, 
and  for  all  unpopular  measures.  With  an  ungainly  appearance, 
and  awkward  manners,  he  had  a  vigorous  understanding,  and 
though  not  fond  of  application,  soon  became  superior  to  all  but 


112  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  25. 

Mr.  Grcuville  in  the  knowledge  of  finance.  He  came  into  office 
as  a  junior  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  when  he  was  oiiered  the 
post  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  declined  it  at  first  for  fear 
of  encountering  Mr.  Grenville's  mature  and  merciless  criticism. 
There  was,  however,  at  this  time,  an  utter  dearth  of  persons  to 
defend,  in  the  leading  offices,  the  policy  of  the  Court.  The 
Rockinghams  and  the  G-renvilles  were  odious  to  the  King.  Mr. 
Conway  was  too  scrupulous,  and  voted  against  the  measures  of 
the  Ministry  to  which  he  belonged.  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  was  pro- 
scribed by  the  public  as  a  Scotchman,  and  seems  to  have  preferred 
the  convenient  party  called  the  King's  friends — who,  as  he  truly 
said,  were  courted  by  every  ministry  by  turns — to  the  slippery 
ascent  of  political  eminence.  Lord  North,  a  man  of  firmness 
sufficient  to  defend  bad  measures,  and  not  too  obstinate  in  urging 
his  own  views ;  of  a  talent  for  speaking  which  gave  a  decent 
pretext  to  a  willing  majority ;  and,  moreover,  an  hereditary  foe 
to  the  great  Whig  party,  was  an  invaluable  accession  to  the 
Court.  Lord  North  had  many  qualities  which  endeared  him  to 
his  followers.  His  good-humor  was  inexhaustible.  When  re- 
proached with  indolence  and  love  of  flattery,  he  answered  that  he 
spent  a  great  part  of  his  time  in  that  house,  which  was  not  indo- 
lence, and  that  much  of  what  he  heard  there  could  not  be  called 
flattery.  The  language  of  those  days  was  far  less  courteous  than 
that  to  which  we  are  now  accustomed.  In  the  vocabulary  of 
opposition  he  was  a  profligate,  and  a  wicked  Minister,  who  de- 
served to  have  his  head  brought  to  the  block.  Lord  North 
generally  disregarded  these  invectives.  But  when  he  saw  an 
occasion  of  retort,  his  wit  turned  the  laugh  of  the  House  against 
his  opponents.  Thus,  when  Alderman  Sawbridge  presented  a 
petition  from  Billingsgate,  and  accompanied  it  with  much  vitu- 
peration of  the  Minister,  Lord  North  began  his  reply,  ''  I  will 
not  deny  that  the  worthy  alderman  speaks  the  sentiments,  nay 
the  very  language  of  his  constituents,"  &c.  He  was  often 
asleep  in  the  house,  but  when  an  opponent  exclaimed,  '^  The 
noble  lord  is  even  now  slumbering  over  the  ruin  of  his  country, 
asleep  at  a  time" — "  I  wish  to  God  I  was,"  muttered  Lord  North, 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  113 

opening  his  eyes  on  his  discomfited  opponent.  In  private  life  he 
was  a  most  affectionate  husband  and  father,  beloved  by  all  who 
surrounded  him.  Yet  he  could  not  suppress  his  habitual  incli- 
nation for  a  joke,  even  when  the  occasion  seemed  least  propitious. 
His  son  Greorge  coming  to  him  one  day  for  money  to  pay  his 
debts,  drew  a  picture  of  the  straits  to  which  he  had  been  reduced, 
and  finished  by  saying  he  had  been  obliged  to  sell  his  favorite 
mare.  "Quite  wrong,  Greorge,"  rejoined  Lord  North,  ''Equam 
memento  rebus  in  arduis,  servare."  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  after 
this  merciless  pun  he  advanced  the  money. 

Lord  North's  good-humor  and  readiness  gave  him  great  in- 
fluence with  the  House  of  Commons.  But  he  was  supported  on 
each  side  by  Thurlow  and  Wedderburne.  Two  men  of  more 
hardy  understandings,  or  of  more  pliant  consciences,  have  seldom 
adorned  and  desecrated  the  profession  of  the  law.  I  here  revert 
to  Lord  Holland's  remarks  on  the  position  of  Mr.  Fox.* 

"  It  has  always  appeared  to  me  a  fortunate  circumstance — for- 
tunate for  the  interests  of  liberty  and  truth,  and  fortunate  for 
the  comfort  and  happiness — perhaps  for  the  character — of  1\Ir. 
Fox's  political  life,  that  he  had  quarrelled  with  Lord  North 
before  the  question  of  the  American  war  had  distinctly  arisen. 
His  dismissal  from  office,  and  the  subsequent  loss  of  his  father, 
gave  him  an  opportunity  of  exercising  an  unbiassed  and  impar- 
tial judgment  on  that  great  question,  and  the  important  princi- 
ples involved  in  it.  With  his  gallant  spirit  in  party,  he  would, 
no  doubt,  had  he  remained  in  office,  have  defended  in  the  first 
instance  the  conduct  of  the  Grovernment  under  which  he  served ; 
and  the  habit  of  defending  ministers  without  regard  to  popularity, 
as  well  as  the  general  lessons  of  political  prudence  and  subser- 
viency to  the  Court,  inculcated  by  his  father,  might  in  some 
measure  have  tended  to  reconcile  him  to  acts  of  authority, 
which  being  unshackled  when  the  great  question  arose,  he  could, 
without  inconsistency,  resist.  It  is,  however,  but  just  to  the 
first  Lord  Holland  to  observe,  that  his  sagacity  early  foresaw 
the  imprudence  of  taxing  America,  and  that  any  deference  which 
Charles  Fox  might  have  felt  for  his  father  would  have  led  him 

10* 


114  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  25. 

to  question,  or  to  condemn,  rather  than  to  applaud  the  policy 
which  involved  this  country  in  a  contest  with  its  colonies. 
Many  traces  of  this  opinion  may  be  discovered  in  the  corre- 
spondence of  Lord  Holland  with  Mr.  Ellis  in  1765  and  1766, 
and  in  one  of  his  letters  he  says  distinctly — '  I  am  more  sorry  a 
good  deal  for  the  rebellion  of  the  colonies.  But  I  should  date 
it  from  the  passing  of  the  Stamp  Act,  not  the  repeal  of  it.'  I 
have  recorded  this  at  the  present  period,  because  it  is  curious  to 
trace  to  its  origin  Mr.  Fox's  opinion  on  that  great  question. 
And  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  if  in  adopting  more  elevated 
notions  of  politics,  and  more  popular  motives  of  action,  he  devi- 
ated from  the  school  in  which  he  had  been  bred,  yet  in  his  pre- 
ference of  a  conciliatory  to  a  coercive  system  of  policy — in  his 
abhorrence  of  unnecessary  war,  and  in  his  attachment  to  reli- 
gious liberty,  or  at  least  in  his  aversion  to  everything  like  reli- 
gious intolerance,  hypocrisy,  or  superstition — he  adhered  to  and 
enforced  the  principles  which  his  father  had  transmitted  from 
Sir  Robert  Walpole  and  his  school,  and  instilled  into  him." — 

V.    H. 

*The  commencement  of  the  year  1774  was  marked  by  one  of 
those  unhappy  incidents  which  tended  so  greatly  to  embitter  our 
national  contest  with  America.  Benjamin  Franklin,  a  man  of 
science  and  of  letters,  having  risen  from  obscurity  by  his  talents, 
was  at  this  time  Deputy  Postmaster-General  under  the  Crown 
for  the  American  colonies,  and  agent  in  London  for  the  Assem- 
bly of  Massachusetts.  In  both  capacities  he  had  become  inti- 
mately connected  with  Mr.  John  Temple,  lately  Surveyor-General 
of  the  Customs,  and  at  this  time  one  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Customs  at  Boston.  Some  letters  of  Hutchinson,  the  Governor, 
and  Oliver,  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  of  Massachusetts,  addressed 
to  Mr.  Thomas  "VVhately,  Under-Secretary  of  State,  appear  to 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Temple,  and  to  have  been  by 
him  communicated  to  Franklin.  The  letters  were  addressed  to 
a  private  friend,  but  to  a  private  friend  in  office,  and  the  matter 
of  them  was  of  a  public  nature.  The  violence  of  the  Boston 
opposition   was   in  these  letters   treated  with   severity;    doubts 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  115 

were  expressed  whether  a  colony  three  thousand  miles  from  the 
parent  state  should  enjoy  all  the  liberty  of  the  parent  state. 
Such  letters  were  sure  to  kindle  a  flame  in  the  colony.  Regard- 
less at  once  of  such  consequences,  and  of  the  private  character 
of  the  letters,  Franklin  imitated  the  conduct  of  the  younger 
Vane,  and  transmitted  the  letters,  under  an  injunction  of  secrecy, 
to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Assembly  in  Massachusetts. 
The  secrecy  which  he  had  not  kept  himself  was  not  likely  to  be 
observed  by  the  leaders  of  a  popular  assembly;  the  letters  were 
divulged;  it  was  resolved  by  101  to  5  that  they  were  designed 
to  subvert  the  constitution ;  and  a  petition  of  the  Assembly  to 
the  King  praying  for  the  removal  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver, 
was  voted,  and  transmitted  to  Franklin  for  presentation.  The 
petition  to  this  effect  was  by  the  King's  Ministers  referred  to 
a  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council.  On  the  29th  of  January, 
1774,  thirty-five  Privy  Councillors  attended  the  meeting  which 
had  been  fixed  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  counsel.  Mr.  Dun- 
ning, afterwards  Lord  Ashburton,  and  Mr.  Lee,  afterwards  Lord 
Rockingham's  Solicitor-Grcneral,  spoke  for  the  petitioners. 

On  the  other  side  appeared  Wedderburne,  the  Solicitor-Gene- 
ral of  the  Crown.  Discarding  the  merits  of  the  question,  he 
directed  his  utmost  abilities  to  an  invective  against  Franklin. 
He  denounced  the  eminent  man  of  letters  and  of  science,  as 
homo  trium  literarum,  a  cant  Roman  expression  for  "  fur,"  a 
thief.  He  compared  his  conduct  to  that  of  Zanga  in  the  "  Re- 
venge," and  exclaimed,  "  I  ask,  my  Lords,  whether  the  vengeful 
temper  attributed  by  poetic  fiction  only  to  the  bloody-minded 
African,  is  not  surpassed  by  the  coolness  and  apathy  of  the  wily 
New  Englander?" 

It  is  impossible  to  justify  the  conduct  of  Franklin.  The 
Privy  Council  might  reasonably  have  dismissed  the  complaint. 
But  the  savage  rhetoric  of  Wedderburne  was  impudent,  scurri- 
lous, and  outrageous.  Offensive  as  it  was,  however,  the  Lords 
of  the  Privy  Council  applauded  it  with  laughter  and  noisy 
assent.     They  reported  that  the  petition  was  framed  upon  "  false 


116  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

and  erroneous  allegations/^  and  they  concluded  by  declaring  it 
to  be  "  groundless,  vexatious,  and  scandalous.'' 

Such  was  one  of  the  fatal  episodes  of  the  American  struggle. 
Lord  North  is  said  not  to  have  joined  in  the  applauding  laughter 
of  "his  colleagues  at  the  intemperate  sallies  of  his  Solicitor- 
Greneral.  But  when  he  dismissed  Franklin  two  days  afterwards 
from  his  post  of  Deputy-Postmaster,  he  ought  at  the  same  time 
to  have  dismissed  Wedderburne  from  his  office  of  Solicitor- 
Greneral.  To  refuse  all  modes  of  conciliation  likely  to  succeed, 
was  impolitic  and  absurd,  but  to  prepare  the  way  for  it  by 
exciting  the  passions  of  the  Privy  Council,  branding  with  infamy 
a  distinguished  citizeUj  and  pointing  the  finger  of  scorn  at  a 
whole  assembly,  was  flagitious  and  wicked  in  the  extreme. 

The  year  1774  may  be  considered  as  the  epoch  of  the  struggle 
for  independence.  Till  this  year,  and  even  during  the  course  of 
it,  the  Americans  had  retained  their  affection  for  England,  for 
its  monarchy,  its  institutions,  and  its  people. 

Lord  North  had,  the  year  before,  obtained  the  easy  assent  of 
Parliament  to  a  bill  for  allowing  the  East  India  Company  a  draw- 
back on  tea  imported  to  America,  leaving  the  local  duty  for 
imperial  purposes  to  be  levied  in  American  ports.  The  people  of 
Boston  took  this  occasion  for  a  riotous,  but  at  first  a  clandestine 
resistance.  Persons  disguised  as  Mohawks  boarded  the  tea  ships, 
and  threw  the  chests  of  tea  to  the  waves. 

The  answer  of  Lord  North  to  these  outrages  consisted  of  two 
measures:  one,  to  close  the  port  of  Boston,  and  transfer  its 
establishments  to  Salem ;  the  other,  altering  the  royal  charter 
of  Massachusetts. 

In  taking  this  course,  Lord  North  was  warmly  supported  in  the 
closet,  and  received  the  sympathy  of  the  country.  Yet  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  reflect  that  Lord  North  was  the  same  minister  who 
in  1768  had,  by  his  voice  in  the  Cabinet,  prevented  the  repeal  of 
the  tea  duty,  and  the  same  minister  who,  in  1778,  proposed  the 
repeal  of  the  tea  duty,  and  the  abandonment  of  all  taxation 
by  Parliament  for  imperial  purposes.  Had  he  supported  that 
repeal  in  1768,  he  would  have   prevented  the  American  war ;  in 


1774.']  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  117 

1774  he  at  least  would  have  given  a  chance  to  peace;  in  1778, 
after  our  armies  had  been  defeated,  the  concession  was  useless 
and  insufficient. 

Such,  then,  was  the  period  when  Mr.  Fox  was  dismissed  from 
office ;  and  it  is  impossible  not  to  agree  with  Lord  Holland  that 
it  was  fortunate  for  his  character  and  reputation  that  he  could 
oppose  the  American  war,  and  the  measures  connected  with  it, 
without  any  deviation  from  consistency. 

Mr.  Fox  was  at  this  time  twenty-five  years  old ;  well  instructed 
in  poetry,  ancient  and  modern,  in  history,  and  in  the  constitution 
of  his  country.  One  blot  alone  weakened  his  influence,  absorbed 
his  time,  and  ruined  his  fortune.  His  passion  for  gaming  had  at 
this  early  age  involved  him  in  debt  to  an  enormous  amount.  His 
mind  was  greatly  distressed  by  this  burthen,  and  he  was  propor- 
tionably  happy  when  his  father  relieved  him  by  paying  £140,000 
out  of  his  own  property.  It  is  stated  by  Gibbon  that  on  one 
occasion  he  sat  playing  at  hazard  for  twenty-two  hours  in  succes- 
sion; at  that  sitting  he  lost  £11,000.  Often  must  he  afterwards 
have  said  with  Mirabeau,  ^^Ali!  que  V immoralite  de  ma  Jeunesse 
a  fait  de  tort  a  la  chose  piibliquer'  In  one  of  the  debates  on 
the  militia  in  November,  1775,  "  Charles  Fox  saying  it  was  not 
fit  to  be  trusted  in  hands  who  could  petition  the  King  for  pushing 
the  war  against  America,  Mr.  Acland,  his  cousin,  a  hot  Tory,  re- 
sented it  and  said,  '  It  was  fitter  in  their  hands  than  in  those  of 
men  who  had  ruined  themselves  by  the  most  scandalous  vices.' 
This  personality,  unprovoked  by  any,  gave  offence.  Fox  replied 
he  confessed  his  errors,  and  wished  he  could  atone  for  them.''^ 

In  1774  the  breach  between  the  mother  country  and  the  colo- 
nies was  not  irreparable.  It  is  true  there  was  a  party  which 
sought  independence,  but  that  party  was  yet  small,  and  only 
gathered  strength  from  the  faults  of  the  British  Grovernment. — 
We  might  disregard  the  expressions  of  Franklin,  who  was  not  a 
very  sincere  or  upright  man  ;  but  Washington,  a  witness  above 
all  exception,  writes  thus  to  a  captain  in  the  British  army,  sta- 
tioned this  year  at  Boston  : — 

^  Horace  Walpole. 


118  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  25. 

'^  Although  you  are  taught  to  believe  that  the  people  of  Mas. 
sachusetts  are  rebellious,  setting  up  for  independency,  and  what 
not,  give  me  leave,  my  good  friend,  to  tell  you  that  you  are 
abused,  grossly  abused.  This  I  advance  with  a  degree  of  confi- 
dence and  boldness  which  may  claim  your  belief,  having  better 
opportunities  of  knowing  the  real  sentiments  of  the  people  you 
are  among,  from  the  leaders  of  them,  in  opposition  to  the  present 
measures  of  administration,  than  you  have  from  those  whose 
business  it  is,  not  to  disclose  truths,  but  to  misrepresent  facts,  in 
order  to  justify,  as  much  as  possible,  to  the  world  their  own 
conduct.  Give  me  leave  to  add,  and  I  think  I  can  announce  it 
as  a  fact,  that  it  is  not  the  wish  or  interest  of  that  government, 
or  any  other  upon  this  continent,  separately  or  collectively,  to  set 
up  for  independence ;  but  this  you  may  at  the  same  time  rely  on, 
that  none  of  them  will  ever  submit  to  the  loss  of  those  valuable 
rights  and  privileges  which  are  essential  to  the  happiness  of  every 
free  state,  and  without  which  life,  liberty,  and  property  are  ren- 
dered totally  insecure/^* 

The  King  was,  from  the  commencement  to  the  end,  indignant 
at  the  resistance  of  the  Americans,  and  fearful  of  the  dismem- 
berment of  his  kingdom.  At  the  same  time,  he  would  not  seek 
for  advice  which  might  prove  unpalatable.  He  sincerely  hated 
the  politics  of  the  Whig  party,  and  was  provoked  at  the  conduct 
of  Lord  Chatham.^ 

^  Sparks's  Life  of  Washington,  vol.  i.,  p.  130. 

2  "In  August,  1775,  the  King  wi'ites  thus  of  Lord  Chatham:  'The 
making  Lord  Chatham's  family  suffer  for  the  conduct  of  their  father  is 
not  in  the  least  agreeable  to  my  sentiments.  But  I  should  choose  to  know 
him  to  be  totally  unable  to  appear  on  the  public  stage  before  I  agree  to 
any  offer  of  that  kind,  lest  it  should  be  wi'ongly  construed  as  fear  of  him ; 
and  indeed  his  political  conduct  the  last  winter  ivas  so  abandoned  that  he 
must,  in  the  eyes  of  the  dispassionate,  have  totally  undone  all  the  merit 
of  his  former  conduct.  As  to  any  gratitude  to  be  expected  from  him  or 
his  family,  the  whole  tenor  of  their  lives  has  shovs^n  them  void  of  that 
most  honorable  sentiment.  But  when  decrepitude  or  death  puts  an  end 
to  him  as  a  trumpet  of  sedition,  I  shall  make  no  difficulty  in  placing  the 
second  son's  name  instead  of  his  father's,  and  making  his  pension  3000Z.' " 
— North  Papers. 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  119 

Lord  Nortli^  with  all  his  Tory  jDrinciples  and  predilections, 
saw  the  folly  of  an  obstinate  refusal  of  concessions  to  America 
— but  unfortunately  his  concessions  were  always  some  years  too 
late ;  he  perceived,  likewise,  the  weakness  of  his  own  adminis- 
tration, but  he  could  not  withstand  the  desires  and  almost  entreat- 
ies of  the  King,  that  he  would  remain  in  office. 

Lord  Chatham,  in  spite  of  his  own  experience,  his  success  in 
1759,  when  he  governed  with  the  Whig  party,  and  his  failure  in 
1767,  when  he  attempted  to  govern  without  them,  still  clung,  in 
spite  of  uncertain  health,  and  the  small  number  of  his  followers, 
to  the  notion  of  being  sole  Minister,  supported  by  the  King  and 
the  country.  Thus,  in  the  end  of  the  year  1774,  Burke  writes 
to  Lord  Rockingham  :  "  One  cannot  help  feeling  for  the  unhappy 
situation  in  which  we  stand  from  our  own  unhappy  divisions. 
Lord  Chatham  shows  a  disposition  to  come  near  you,  but  with 
those  resources  (query  reserves),  which  he  never  fails  to  have,  as 
long  as  he  thinks  that  the  closet  door  stands  ajar  to  receive  him. 
The  least  peep  into  that  closet  intoxicates  him,  and  will  to  the 
end  of  his  life."^  In  this  spirit  he  spoke  when  he  called  upon 
Lord  Rockingham  in  the  beginning  of  January  :  "  Lord  Chat- 
ham, in  point  of  looks,  is  very  well,  and  in  the  extent  of  our 
conversation  I  thought  his  countenance  denoted  more  than  a 
transient  appearance  of  a  tendency  to  something  like  cordiality ; 
but  our  interview  lasted  near  a  full  hour,  and  I  confess  that  I 
was  neither  much  edified,  and  perhaps  had  as  little  reason  to  be 
satisfied  with  some  of  the  ideas  and  some  of  the  expressions  which 
he  dropped.  He  favored  me  with  his  opinion  that  the  Declara- 
tory Bill  had  been  the  cause  of  the  revival  of  all  the  confusion 
— that  the  line  of  distinction  between  the  no  right  to  tax,  and 
the  right  to  restrain  their  trade,  &c.,  was  a  most  clear  proposition. 
That  it  might  be  easily  so  clearly  laid  down,  that  he  who  runs 
may  read.  That  to  be  sure  some  persons  might  be  prejudiced 
with  difi"erent  ideas,  but  those  prejudices  should  be  cleared  away 
by  reflection,"  &c.^     All  this,  when  the  real  difficulty  arose  from 

'  Rockingliam  Memoh'S,  vol.  ii.  p.  260. 

2  Lord  Rockingham  to  Edmund  Burke.     Rockingham  Memoirs,  vol.  ii- 
p.  261. 


120  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  25. 

the  tea  duty  imposed  by  Lord  Chatham's  own  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  was  not  a  little  provoking.  Lord  Chatham's  conduct 
was  in  keeping  with  his  language.  In  a  letter  to  Lord  Stanhope 
of  the  19th,  having  seen  Lord  Rockingham  on  the  8th,  Lord  Chat- 
ham says:  "Be  so  good  as  not  to  communicate  what  my  intended 
motion  is  to  any  one  whatever,"  &c.  On  the  30th,  he  accordingly 
moved  an  address,  to  remove  the  troops  from  Boston,  without 
any  concert  or  communication  whatever.  Lord  Rockingham  sup- 
ported the  motion,  but  many  of  his  friends  were  absent,  having 
had  no  notice  of  the  nature  of  Lord  Chatham's  motion.  Thus 
finished  this  "appearance  of  a  tendency  to  something  like  cor- 
diality." 

Yet  Lord  Chatham's  followers,  Lord  Camden  and  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  were  men  of  reputation  and  talent,  although  not  strong 
enough  to  form  a  government  themselves.  They  remained,  after 
his  death,  a  separate  body,  able  to  strengthen  or  to  dissolve  the 
great  Whig  party. 

Lord  Rockingham  was  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  Whigs. 
No  man,  not  even  excepting  Lord  Althorp,  ever  carried  into  pub- 
lic affairs  a  purer  love  of  the  public  welfare.  His  good  sense  was 
never  at  fault — his  judgment  clear,  his  power  of  expression  in 
writing  not  inferior  to  his  judgment;  his  capacity  for  uniting  and 
guiding  men  of  separate  views  and  jealous  tempers  generally 
acknowledged.  But  he  had  two  deficiencies.  First  he  was  no 
orator,  and  could  seldom  be  induced  to  rise  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
Secondly,  want  of  health  and  of  natural  vigor  made  him  inactive, 
and  inclined  to  fear  rather  than  hope. 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  Dowdeswell  was  somewhat  heavy; 
and  Burke,  whose  manner  and  brogue  were  strongly  against  him, 
was  one 

"Who,  too  deep  for  his  hearers,  still  went  on  refining, 
And  thought  of  convincing  while  they  thought  of  dining ; 
Though  equal  to  all  things,  for  all  things  unfit, 
Too  nice  for  a  statesman,  too  proud  for  a  wit; 
For  a  patriot  too  cool,  for  a  drudge  disobedient. 
And  too  fond  of  the  right  to  pursue  the  expedient." 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  121 

The  Duke  of  Richmond,  a  man  of  talent  and  spirit,  was  apt  to 
despond  and  to  abstain  from  debates  in  the  House  of  Lords,  from 
one  motive  or  another.  Thus  the  Opposition  was  languid,  and 
produced  little  impression  on  the  nation. 

At  the  general  election  of  1774,  the  Court  candidates  not 
only  prevailed  in  the  counties  and  small  boroughs,  but  were  tri- 
umphant in  the  City  of  Westminster.  The  ministerial  majority 
appeared  unbroken  and  undiminished. 

*  Such  was  the  state  of  parties  when  Charles  Fox  joined  first 
in  the  debates,  and  afterwards  in  the  councils  of  Opposition. 
He  brought  his  great  talents,  his  surprising  vigor,  his  young 
and  fervent  eloquence  to  the  aid  of  Opposition.  We  shall  see 
how  he  promoted,  and  finally  carried  to  a  successful  issue,  the 
resistance  of  the  Whig  party  to  the  fatal  policy  of  the  xlmerican 
War.* — J.  R. 

In  the  debate  of  the  25th  of  February,  on  a  motion  of  Sir  Ed- 
ward Astley  to  render  the  Grrenville  bill  perpetual,  in  which 
Stephen  Fox  took  some  part,  and  T.  Townshend  in  answer  laugh- 
ed at  him  and  his  brother,  "  Mr.  Ward  spoke  for  the  bill,  and 
then  Charles  Fox  against  it,  having  declared  himself,  before  his 
rupture  with  Lord  North,  as  well  as  [having  been]  a  principal 
instigator  of  his  opposition.  He  declared  he  retained  his  former 
opinion;  supposed  he  was  peculiarly  obstinate;  but  the  House 
was  at  last  come  to  surrender  its  power  and  privileges.  Mr.  T. 
Townshend,  he  concluded,  did  not  imagine  that  he,  circumstanced 
as  he  was,  should  be  able  to  carry  any  election  either  by  money 
or  treasury  influence.  Ministers,  said  he,  looking  at  Lord  North, 
every  day  shamefully  and  basely  gave  up  the  rights  of  the 
House,  and  might  go  further  and  persecute  persons  for  their 
opinions;  for  his  part  he  should  be  proud  to  be  a  martyr  to  that 
cause." — H.  w.^ 

After  the  debate,  George  Selwyn  said  to  him,  "Charles,  for 

1  It  may  be  convenient  to  state  once  for  all  that  the  following  para- 
graphs, and  generally  the  paragraphs   between   inverted  commas,  not 
otherwise  marked,  are  extracts  from  Horace  Walpole. — J.  R. 
VOL.  I. — 11 


122  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  25. 

the  future  I  will  fast  and  eat  salt  fish  on  the  day  you  was  turned 
out.  You  shall  be  my  Charles  the  martyr  now.  I  am  tired  of 
the  old  one,  your  great-grandfather.  His  head  can  never  be 
sewed  on  again;  but  as  yours  can  be,  I  will  stick  to  you.^^ 

When  Lord  North  complained  of  Charles's  flippancies  to  the 
King,  his  Majesty,  who  hated  him,  had  said,  ''Why  don't  you 
turn  him  out?  you  may,  if  you  will." 

February  26.  On  the  debate  on  the  same  subject,  ''Sir 
William  Dolben,  a  bigoted  Tory,  reflected  on  Charles  Fox'' 
[though  joining  with  him  in  opposition  to  the  bill],  observing, 
"that  he  talked  as  if  the  fate  of  Caesar  and  Rome  depended  upon 
his  conduct.  He  was  tender  in  years,  but  tough  in  politics,  and, 
if  he  did  not  mistake,  had  already  been  twice  in,  and  twice  out  of 
place." 

March  14.  On  the  bill  for  removing  the  Custom  House  from 
Boston  (the  first  step  in  the  American  war),  "Charles  Fox,  with- 
out heat,  left  himself  at  liberty  to  take  what  part  he  should 
please." 

March  24.  On  the  same  bill,  in  committee,  "Charles  Fox 
declared  that  he  thought  the  Power  of  restoring  the  Port  ought 
to  be  in  the  Parliament,  not  in  the  Crown,  which  Phipps  denied, 
as  mercy  was  one  of  the  King's  prerogatives.  Charles  Fox 
pressed  to  know  what  the  King's  Ministers  meant  to  do  further, 
as  this  would  be  but  a  feeble  exertion,  worse  than  none  at  all; 
but  Lord  North,  without  satisfying  him,  promised  to  be  consist- 
ent without  obstinacy." 

March  28.  On  Massachusetts  Bill,  "Stephen  Fox  approved 
•vigorous  measures,  but  said  the  disorders  arose  neither  from 
Stamp  Act  nor  its  repeal,  but  that  all  colonies,  when  they  ac- 
quire strength,  look  with  a  jealous  eye  to  the  mother  country." 

April  12.  On  Lutterell's  motion  for  censuring  the  Sherifis. 
"Nobody  seconding  Lutterell,  the  orders  o^  the  day  would  have 
been  called  for,  but  after  another  pause,  Charles  Fox  rose,  and 
said  Colonel  Lutterell  should  not  want  a  seconder,  and  then 
poured  out  a  torrent  t)f  invective  against  Lord  North,  for  his 
pusillanimity,  and  what  ha  called  his  impudent  and  shameless 


1774.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  123 

silence;  Lord  North,  with  great  quickness  and  humor,  replied, 
that  he  had  never  before  heard  of  impudent  silence — that  he  had, 
indeed,  seen  gentlemen  on  their  legs,  whose  shameless  impudence 
had  shocked  all  mankind.  The  laugh  of  the  whole  House  ap- 
plied the  likeness  to  the  original  it  was  drav/n  for." 

April  19.  The  two  Foxes  enumerated  among  the  voters  for 
the  repeal  of  the  tea  duty."^ 

April  22.  On  American  Jurisdiction  Bill,  "  Charles  Fox  said, 
Rigby's  politics  were  very  distinct — how  wise  was  another  ques- 
tion; he  would  tax  the  Americans  when  they  were  quiet,  would  tax 
them  as  a  boon  for  their  submission — but  we  were  now  fighting 
for  taxation.  We  might  speculatively  have  a  right  to  tax  Ireland. 
In  this  country  a  dispensing  power  had  once  been  contended  for; 
the  moment  it  came  to  be  exercised,  nobody  would  bear  it. 
It  was  contrary  to  fact  that  the  Stamp  Act  would  have  passed 
without  opposition.  We  were  irritating  the  Americans  without 
a  power  to  force  them.  Whoever  would  govern  a  country  with- 
out its  consent,  insured  resistance." 

May  3.  On  the  Massachusetts  Bill,  "  Charles  Fox  said.  Lord 
George  Germaine  thought  that  repealing  the  tea  duty  would  be 
giving  up  the  Constitution.  Was  the  tea  duty  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution ?  The  most  absurd  point  of  honor  that  ever  was  I 
If  taxation  be  intended,  their  charters  must  bo  annihilated,  and 
[the  colonies]  could  only  be  maintained  by  military  force." 

*  Lord  Holland,  Mr.  Fox's  father,  died  on  the  1st  of  July, 
1774.  Within  less  than  a  month  afterwards,  he  lost  his  mother. 
His  brother  Stephen  died  in  the  following  November,  leaving  a 
minor  (the  late  Lord  Holland)  to  inherit  his  title  and  estate. 
Charles  Fox  succeeded  his  brother  as  Clerk  of  the  Pells  in  Ire- 

« 

land.* — J.  R. 

In  September,  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

December  5.  On  Address.  '^  Charles  Fox,  Mr.  Hartley,  the 
Burkes,  and  T.  Townshend,  were  very  warm  on  the  views  and 
late  measures  of  the  Court." 

^  The  first  vote  in  conjunction  with  the  Rockingham  party  given  by 
Mr.  Fox.— V.  H. 


124  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  26. 


1775. 

January  23.  ^^  Charles  Fox  spoke  on  a  petition  from  mer- 
cliants  trading  to  America. " 

January  29.  ^'Charles  Fox  attacked  Lord  North  violently, 
who  replied  that  though  the  gentleman  had  blamed  all  his  admi- 
nistration, yet  he  had  defended  and  supported  much  of  it,  nor  did 
he  know  how  he  had  deserved  his  reproaches.  Fox  started  up  and 
said,  he  could  tell  the  noble  lord  how:  by  every  species  of  false- 
hood and  treachery.  Fox  was  called  to  order.  He  rejoined, 
that  he  saw  the  House  would  hear  invectives  only  on  one  side." 

February  2.  On  Lord  North's  motion  for  carrying  on  war, 
"Charles  Fox  entered  into  the  whole  history  and  argument  of 
the  dispute  with  great  force  and  temper,  and  made  the  greatest 
figure  he  had  done  yet,  in  a  speech  of  an  hour  and  twenty  min- 
utes. He  said  the  greatest  folly  of  his  life  was  in  having  sup- 
ported Lord  North,  with  which  his  lordship  was  always  upbraid- 
ing him.  He  threw  some  reflections  on  George  Grenville^  aiitlior 
of  the  Stamj-)  Act,  which  drew  up  the  latter's  son,  who  had  not 
yet  opened,  and  who  defended  his  father  with  spirit  and  decency." 

"Before  twelve,  a  division  arrived  on  an  amendment  proposed 
by  Charles  Fox,  which  tended  to  leave  out  all  the  substance  of 
the  Address;"  but  the  original  Address  "was  carried,  and  it 
was  a  vote  for  a  civil  war,  by  304  to  105." 

[In  writing  to  Mr.  Holroyd,  afterwards  Lord  Sheffield  (Febru- 
ary 8,  1775),  Gribbon,  on  occasion  of  this  speech,  says  to  him. 
Fox,  "taking  the  vast  compass  of  the  question  before  us,  disco- 
vered powers  for  regular  debate,  which  neither  his  friends  hoped, 
nor  his  enemies  dreaded."  Of  this  speech  of  Mr.  Fox  no  memo- 
rial has  been  preserved,  except  the  slight  notice  of  Walpole  and 
the  praise  of  Gibbon.] 

February  20.  On  Lord  North's  plan  of  pacification,  "Charles 
Fox  moved  for  the  chairman's  leaving  the  chair,  and  at  half  an 
hour  after  ten  at  night,  the  question  being  put,  it  was  resolved 
in  the  negative  by  271  to  88." 


1775.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  125 

March  G.  On  Massacliusetts  Bill,  and  Dundas's  wish  that  the 
inhabitants  might  be  starved,  "Charles  Fox  opposed  the  engross- 
ment, imputed  all  the  present  disturbances  to  the  persisting  in 
taxation,  and  said  the  Americans  had  now  discovered  that  taxa- 
tion was  used  as  punishment,  and  that  it  was  bad  policy  to  use 
power  to  punish  with,  nor  was  it  prudent  to  risk  more  in  the 
contest  than  was  necessary.  Was  there  a  man  would  say  that 
the  Americans  had  better  starve  than  rebel?  If  the  act  should 
not  produce  universal  acquiescence,  he  would  defy  anybody  to 
defend  the  policy  of  it.  Yet  America  would  not  submit.  New 
York  only  differed  in  the  modes.  He  believed  the  Ministers  did 
not  like  their  state  of  suspense.  They  wished  to  drive  the  colonies 
into  rebellion,  and  then  their  way  would  be  plain." 

March  23.  Charles  Fox  speaks  on  Burke's  plan  for  concilia- 
tion. 

April  5.  On  the  new  bill  against  refractory  colonies,  Burke 
and  Charles  Fox,  and  many  others  of  the  Opposition,  were  absent. 

May  15.  Charles  Fox  spoke  for  receiving  the  New  York  re- 
monstrance. 

May  18.  Sir  G-.  Savile  moved  the  repeal  of  Quebec  Bill,  and 
was  "supported  admirably  by  Charles  Fox,  but  with  no  success.'' 

October  26.  On  Address.  "The  Solicitor-General  (Wedder- 
burne)  having  augured  well  from  ill  success,  as  the  late  war  had 
begun  ill  and  ended  gloriously,  Burke  took  this  up  to  ridicule ; 
but  Charles  Fox  took  it  up  better,  and  said,  'The  late  war  had 
not  turned  to  success  till  the  Ministry  had  been  changed  (forget- 
ting Lord  Chatham  had  come  in  and  his  own  father  been  of  the 
former  administration,  but  with  his  usual  quickness  he  soon  re- 
covered that  slip,  and  said),  Lord  Hardwicke  had  been  a  great 
lawyer  but  a  wretched  politician,  and  when  he  gave  place  to  Lord 
Chatham  all  had  prospered.'  '  But,'  continued  he,  rising  in  en- 
ergy, 'not  Lord  Chatham,  not  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  no,  not 
Alexander,  nor  Caesar,  had  ever  conquered  so  much  territory  as 
Lord  North  had  lost,  in  one  campaign."' 

November  16.  On  another  conciliatory  motion  of  Mr.  Burke, 
"Lord  Ossory  and  Richard  Fitzpatrick,  nephews  of  Lord  Gower, 

11- 


126  COHRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  26. 

but  won  over  by  Charles  Fox,  now  declared  themselves  in  Oppo- 
sition. The  elder  brother  spoke  sensibly  and  well,  the  younger 
very  well.  Charles  Fox  outshone  himself,  made  a  very  pathetic 
eulogium  on  the  two  brothers,  and  a  very  humorous  description  of 
the  Treasury  Bench.^' 

November  27.  On  Oliver's  motion  to  ascertain  advisers  of 
war,  ^'Charles  Fox  endeavored  to  prevent  a  division,  but  the 
Ministers  knowing  their  strength  forced  it  on  to  assure  a  negative, 
after  Lord  North  had  avowed  that  he  and  various  ministers  had 
given  the  advice.     Not  above  ten  were  for  the  motion." 

[No  private  letters  or  memorials  of  Mr.  Fox  have  been  pre- 
served from  the  period  of  his  dismissal  from  office  to  the  close  of 
1775,  when  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Lord  Ossory,  who 
was  becoming  a  convert  to  his  opinions  on  the  folly  and  impolicy 
of  the  American  war.] 

HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

<' London,  Saturday,  Nov.  5,  1775. 
''Dear  Ossory: — 

''As  you  desired  me  to  let  you  know  what  is  likely  to  come 
on  next  week,  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that,  on  Friday  next, 
Burke  will  move  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  secure  the  colonies  against 
Parliamentary  taxation,  and  to  repeal  the  obnoxious  laws.  I  say 
I  am  very  glad  that  Burke  is  to  move  such  a  bill,  because  it  will 
be  the  fairest  test  in  the  world  to  try  who  is  really  for  war  and 
who  for  j)eace.  It  is  conceived  in  the  most  moderate  terms  im- 
aijinable,  and  states  no  more  than  that  the  Americans  have  con- 
sidered  themselves  as  aggrieved  by  taxation,  not  that  they  are 
actually  so;  and  upon  the  ground  of  their  having  been  in  their 
conception  injured,  is  founded  the  repeal  of  the  Tea  Act,  &c., 
and  a  general  pardon  and  indemnity.  I  am  sure,  my  dear  Ossory, 
if  you  do  think  seriously  enough  of  this  matter  to  let  your  opin- 
ion regulate  your  conduct,  it  is  impossible  but  you  must  consider 
this  as  the  true  opportunity  of  declaring  yourself.  And,  indeed, 
if  party  does  not  blind  me  very  much  more  than  I  am  aware  of, 


1776.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  127 

this  is  an  occasion  where  a  man  not  over-scrupulous  ought  to 
think  for  himself.  It  does  not  need  surely  the  tenth  part  of 
your  good  sense  to  see  how  cruel  and  intolerable  a  thing  it  is  to 
sacrifice  thousands  of  lives  almost  without  prospect  of  advantage. 
^^  Make  my  best  respects  to  Lady  Ossory,  and  believe  me,  dear 
Ossory,  yours  ever  most  sincerely, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 

[The  exhortations  of  Mr.  Fox  were  not  unsuccessful.  On  the 
10th  of  December,  1775,  Lady  Holland,  sister  of  Lord  Ossory, 
writes  to  the  Hon.  H.  E.  Fox  (afterwards  Greneral  Fox),  then 
on  service  in  America]  ^'my  brothers  are  both  in  Opposition.'^ 

*  The  year  1775  had  exhibited  the  Ministry  in  all  its  weak- 
ness, and  the  Opposition  in  all  its  inutility.  While  on  the  side 
of  Government  the  most  culpable  improvidence  hastened  the  loss 
of  America,  on  the  side  of  the  Opposition  the  most  brilliant 
talents  and  the  most  prophetic  wisdom  failed  to  save  a  shred  of 
authority,  or  to  avert  for  a  day  the  most  dire  calamities.  Folly 
paralyzed  the  Ministry;  discord  shattered  the  Opposition.  Thus 
Sir  G.  Savile  and  the  Duke  of  Richmond  both  wrote  in  the  most 
desponding  tone  to  Lord  Rockingham.  The  former  says,  "I  am 
sure  we  tend,  by  all  we  can  do,  only  to  make  the  driving  more 
furious.  It  is  a  child  pulling  against  a  runaway  horse  j  let  him 
alone,  and  he  will  stop  the  sooner,"  &c.  Thus  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond on  a  particular  motion,  "I  confess  that  I  feel  very  languid 
about  this  American  business.  The  only  thing  that  can  restore 
common  sense  to  this  country  is  feeling  the  dreadful  consequences 
which  must  soon  follow  such  diabolical  measures.''  ^ — *J.  R. 


1776. 

January.     "What    little   life    there   was    [in    Opposition] 
existed  in  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Charles  Fox.     The  latter 

'  Rockingham  Papers,  vol.  ii.  pp.  284-290. 


128  '  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  27. 

bustled,  tried  to  animate  both  the  Duke  and  the  Marquis,  con- 
ferred with  Lord  Shelburne,  but  neither  abandonedj^jhis  gaming 
nor  rakish  life.  Pie  was  seldom  in  bed  before  five  in  the  morning, 
nor  out  of  it  before  two  at  noon/' 

February  20.  '^  Charles  Fox  made  a  motion  in  the  House  of 
Commons  for  inquiring  into  the  ill-success  of  the  King's  arms 
in  America,  and  laid  open  all  the  boasts,  blunders,  and  disgraces 
of  the  Administration;  as  Barre  did  still  more  severely,  with 
much  irony  on  Lord  G-.  Germaine,  whom  he  called  the  Pitt  of 
the  day.  Lord  Ossory  and  Richard  Fitzpatrick,  nephews  of  Lord 
Grower,  but  intimately  connected  with  Charles  Fox,  both  spoke 
well." 

March  11.  "Charles  Fox  made  a  panegyric  on  General 
Montgomery  (who  had  borne  a  most  excellent  character),  and 
reproached  the  Administration  with  having  lost  by  ill-treatment 
so  amiable  a  man — a  man  distinguished  by  the  friendship  and 
esteem  of  General  Wolfe." 

May  22.  Charles  Fox  among  the  speakers  in  favor  of  a  mo- 
tion of  General  Conway's  for  the  instructions  to  Howe. 

[The  following  letters,  written  on  intelligence  of  some  successes 
obtained  in  Canada,  show  Mr.  Fox's  concert  with  Lord  Rocking- 
ham, and  also  that  Mr.  Fox  had  gained  the  concurrence  of  Lord 
Ossory,  not  only  in  his  views  of  the  impolicy  of  the  war,  but  of 
the  injurious  consequences  to  the  liberties  of  England  that  must 
attend  its  successes]  : — 

I 

HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

''June  2-1,  177G. 

^*  *l*  ^*  ^i'  ^4*  ^t*  S^* 

^T*  JjS  'T*  'T*  'T*  'T*  'T* 

"It  will  give  the  tools  and  Tories  here  such  spirits  as  to  make 
them  insuiferable.  As  to  myself,  you  know  little  matters  do  not 
oppress  me  much.  I  am  still  convinced  the  Americans  will  finally 
succeed,  whether  by  victories  or  defeats;  and  if  they  do  not,  I 
am  sure,  as  the  men  say  in  Braganza,  that  it  will  check  all  future 
enterprise  to  such  a  degree  as  to  give  the  completest  triumph  to 


1776.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  129 

Toryism  that  it  ever  had.  I  suppose  the  particulars  of  this  news 
will  be  in  to-morrow's  Gazette,  to  which  I  refer  you  for  them. 
Whatever  happens,  for  God's  sake  let  us  all  resolve  to  stick  by 
them  as  handsomely  (or  more  so)  in  their  adversity  as  we  have 
done  in  their  glory,  and  still  maintain  the  Whig  cause,  however 
discredited  by  defeats,  to  be  the  only  true  principle  for  this 
country.  The  serieux  of  this  letter  may  probably  make  you  think 
me  more  dispirited  than  I  am  by  this  news.  I  am  really  not 
much  so  myself;  but  I  see  such  strange  dispositions  in  others  to 
despond  on  every  trifling  disadvantage  that  I  fear  the  effect  it 
may  have  upon  them.  My  compliments  to  Lady  Ossory.  Adieu, 
my  dear  Ossory. 

'^  Yours  ever  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 


HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"White's,  September  24:,  1776. 
^^Dear  Ossory: — 

"You  will  see  by  the  'Evening  Post'  that,  though  there  is  no 
news  of  a  battle,  there  is  news  of  consequence  enough.  Wash- 
ington, who  is  not  thought  a  rash  man,  must  surely  think  himself 
pretty  secure  in  New  York,  when  he  makes  the  direction  of  a 
letter  the  plea  for  not  receiving  what  he  must  certainly  guess  to 
be  an  offer  of  a  cessation  of  hostilities.  The  word  ^unlimited'  is 
an  odd  word,  but  I  suppose  nothing  more  is  meant  by  it  than 
that  Lord  Howe's  powers  were  not  limited  to  military  affairs. 
I  think  the  publishing  of  the  declaration  he  has  published  the 
weakest  thing,  if  possible,  that  has  yet  been  done;  because  that 
appearing  alone,  it  must  be  understood  in  America  that  pardon 
is  the  only  boon  offered,  and  that  King  and  Parliament  do  not 
mean  to  offer  any  further  terms.  You  see  that  the  Congress  have 
taken  advantage  of  this  by  saying  that  the  'people  of  America 
may  see  hy  this,  &c.  If  it  were  possible  to  add  to  the  folly  of 
the  substance  of  this  declaration,  I  think  the  wording  of  it  would. 
What  do  you  think  of  the  promise  of  duly  considering  those  who 


130  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  27. 

promote  peace?  The  effect  must  be  that  if  anybody  should  at- 
tempt to  hold  the  least  peaceable  language,  that  person  will  be 
immediately  considered  as  hribed  by  Lord  Howe's  declaration, 
and,  in  Lord  Clarendon's  phrase,  respected  accordingly.  What 
I  lay  the  principal  stress  on  in  all  this  news  is,  1,  that  the  Con- 
gress and  Washington  seem  to  be  in  perfect  unison ;  and,  2,  that 
both  of  them,  being  fully  apprised  of  the  force  prepared  against 
them,  do  not  think  it  even  worth  while  to  amuse  the  enemy  by 
hopes  of  a  treaty,  but  are  ready  to  receive  them  with  all  their 
force  rather  than  give  way  on  the  smallest  point.  If  they  have 
common  sense,  and  surely  that  is  not  to  be  doubted,  they  must 
be  pretty  secure  at  New  York  in  their  opinions;  and  why  they 
should  not  judge  as  well  as  anybody  else,  I  am  sure  I  cannot  tell. 
Ls  it  not  charming,  their  setting  about  their  new  government  so 
deliberately  in  the  face,  as  it  were,  of  the  enemy  ?  and  if  George 
III.  should  have  for  a  moment  the  vanity  to  compare  himself  to 
Patrick  Henry,  how  humiliated  he  must  be!  Adieu..  Compli- 
ments to  Lord  Ossory.  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  be  at  Ampthill 
before  Newmarket. 

"Yours  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 


HONORABLE  CHARLES  JAMES  FOX  TO  THE  MARQUIS  OF 

ROCKINGHAM. 

*'  Newmarket,  October  13,  1776. 
"My  dear  Lord: — 

"Though  I  am  far  from  being  dismayed  by  the  terrible  news 
from  Long  Island,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  ought,  with 
what  will  naturally  follow  it,  to  have  a  considerable  influence  upon 
our  councils,  and  that  we  ought,  under  the  present  circumstances, 
to  pursue  a  conduct  somewhat  different  from  that  which  was  pro- 
jected at  Went  worth.  A  secession  at  present  would  be  considered 
as  a  running  away  from  the  conquerors,  and  we  should  be  thought 
to  give  up  a  cause  which  we  think*  no  longer  tenable.  But  the 
more  I  am  convinced  that  a  secession  is  become  improper,  the 


1776.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  131 

clearer  I  am  that  it  is  beconie  still  more  necessary  than  ever  to 
produce  some  manifesto,  petition,  or  public  instrument,  upon  the 
present  situation  of  affairs;  either  to  exhort  his  Majesty  to  make 
the  proper  use  of  his  victory,  by  seizing  this  opportunity  of  mak- 
ing advantageous  offers  of  accommodation,  or  to  express  openly 
and  fairly  to  him  the  well-grounded  apprehensions  every  man 
must  entertain  from  the  power  of  the  Crown,  in  case  his  Ma- 
jesty should  be  able  to  subdue  the  American  continent  by  the 
force  of  his  arms.  Above  all,  my  dear  Lord,  I  hope  that  it  will 
be  a  point  of  honor  among  us  all  to  support  the  American  pre- 
tensions in  adversity  as  much  as  we  did  in  their  prosperity,  and 
that  we  shall  never  desert  those  who  have  acted  unsuccessfulli/ 
upon  AVhig  principles,  while  we  continue  to  profess  our  admira- 
tion of  those  who  succeeded  in  the  same  principles  in  the  year 
1688.  Whatever  is  intended,  I  am  sure  it  is  not  necessary  for 
me  to  press  upon  your  Lordship  the  expediency  of  your  using 
every  means  possible  to  have  a  great  attendance  on  the  31st,  in 
order  to  which,  no  time  must  be  lost  in  making  application  to 
the  members  through  the  properest  channels.  If  your  Lordship 
should  think  it  worth  while  to  write  a  line  in  answer  to  this,  I 
should  be  glad  to  know  when  you  will  be  in  town,  as  likewise 
whether  there  is  anything  in  which  I  can  be  serviceable.  Believe 
me,  my  dear  Lord,  the  expectation  of  your  Lordship  and  all  your 
friends  must  in  a  great  measure  depend  upon  the  part  you  act  at  this 
critical  juncture.  I  am  sure  you  are  a  person  whom  one  need 
not  advise  to  take  a  firm  one ;  but  I  am  so  clear  that  firmness  in 
Whig  principles  is  become  more  necessary  than  ever  that  I  can- 
not help  conjuring  you,  over  and  over  again,  to  consider  the  im- 
portance of  this  crisis.  In  regard  to  myself,  I  dare  hope  that 
professions  are  unnecessary,  and  I  will  therefore  trouble  your 
Lordship  no  further  than  to  assure  you  that  I  am  resolved,  in  the 
present  situation  of  affairs,  to  adhere  still  more,  if  possible,  than 
I  have  done  to  those  principles  of  government  which  we  have 
always  recommended  with  respect  to  America,  and  to  maintain 
that  if  America  should  be  at  our  feet  (which  God  forbid  I),  we 


132  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  27. 

ought  to  give  them  as  good  terms  (at  least)  as  those  offered  in 
Burke's  propositions. 

"I  am,  mj  dear  Lord, 

^' Yours,  etc., 

"  C.  J.  FOX." 

''P.  S.     I  shall  be  here,  or  near  it,  till  I  hear  from  you.''^ 

October  31.  On  Address.  ^^  Charles  Fox  answered  Lord  Gr. 
Grermaine  in  one  of  his  finest  and  most  animated  orations,  and 
with  severity  to  the  answered  person.  He  made  Lord  North's 
conciliatory  proposition  be  read,  which,  he  said,  his  Lordship 
seemed  to  have  forgotten,  and  he  declared  he  thought  it  better 
to  abandon  America  than  attempt  to  conquer  it.  Mr.  Gibbon, 
author  of  the  Roman  History,  a  very  good  judge,  and  being  on 
the  Court  side,  an  impartial  one,  told  me  he  never  heard  a  more 
masterly  speech  than  Fox's  in  his  life;  and  he  said  he  observed 
Thurlow  and  Wedderburne,  the  Attorney  and  Solicitor-General, 
complimenting  which  should  answer  it,  and  at  last  both  declining 
it.'^ 

[On  the  15th  of  November,  1776,  the  King  writes  to  Lord 
North]:  '^I  had  learnt  from  Lord  Weymouth  that  Charles  Fox 
had  declared  at  Arthur's,  last  night,  that  he  should  attend  the 
House  this  day,  and  then  set  off  for  Paris,  and  not  return  till 
after  the  recess.  Bring  as  much  forward  before  the  recess  as 
you  can,  as  real  business  is  never  so  well  considered  as  when  the 
attention  of  the  House  is  not  taken  up  by  noisy  declamation."^ 

[The  plan  thus  announced  at  Arthur's  was  carried  into  execu- 
tion. In  the  December  following,  we  find  Mr.  Fox,  with  his 
friend  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  established  at  Paris,  where  they  passed 
the  recess  amusing  themselves  and  losing  their  money  at  play. 
Mr.  Fox  appears  to  have  lived  much  in  the  society  of  Madame 
du  Deffand,  but  the  impression  he  made  on  that  celebrated  lady 
was  on  the  whole  far  from  favorable.     "  Je  I'ai  beaucoup  vu," 

^  Rockingham  Memoirs,  vol.  ii.  p.  297. 
2  MS.  Correspondence  with  Lord  North. 


1776.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  133 

says  she  in  a  letter  to  Horace  Walpole/  "mais  nous  nous  som- 
mes  contraries;  nos  fagons  de  penser  sont  tres  differentes.  II  a 
beaucoup  d'esprit,  j'en  conviens;  mais  c'est  un  genre  d' esprit  de- 
nue  de  tout  espece  de  bons  sens;'^  and  in  continuation  of  the  same 
letter  she  adds,  ''Le  Fox  compte  vous  voir.  Dites  lui  que  je 
vous  ai  ecrit  beaucoup  de  bien  de  lui.  En  effet  j'en  pense  a  de 
certains  egards,  il  n'a  pas  un  mauvais  cceur,  mais  il  n'anul  espece 
de  principes,  et  il  regarde  avec  pitie  tons  ceux  qui  en  ont;  je  ne 
comprends  pas  quels  sont  ses  projets  pour  Tavenir,  ilne  s'embarasse 
pas  du  lendemain.  La  plus  extreme  pauvrete,  Fimpossibilite  de 
payer  ses  dettes,  tout  cela  ne  lui  fait  rien.  Le  Fitzpatrick  paroi- 
troit  plus  raisonnabloj  mais  le  Fox  assure  qu'il  est  encore  plus 
indifferent  que  lui  surces  deux  articles;  cetteetrange  securite  les 
eleve  a  ce  qu'ils  croient,  audessus  de  tons  les  hommes.  Ces  deux 
personnages  doivent  etre  bien  dangereux  pour  toute  la  jeunesse. 
lis  ont  beaucoup  joue  ici,  surtout  le  Fitzpatrick;  il  a  perdu  beau- 
coup.'' In  another  passage,  she  says  of  Mr.  Fox,  "lime  semble 
qu'il  est  toujours  dans  une  sorted' ivresse;"  and  concludes  by  say- 
ing, "II  joint  h,  beaucoup  d' esprit,  de  la  bonte,  de  la  verite,  mais 
cela  n'empeche  pas  qu'il  ne  soit  detestable.''  In  another  passage, 
speaking  of  Fox,  she  says,  "  Je  lui  aurai  paru  une  platte  moral- 
iste,  et  lui  il  m'a  paru  un  sublime  extravagant."] 

*  The  year  1776  was  the  year  of  the  Declaration  of  American 
Independence.  Grreat  Britain  appears  to  have  used  every  means 
most  fitted  to  bring  about  this  result :  vacillation  in  council, 
harshness  in  language,  feebleness  in  execution,  disregard  of  Ameri- 
can sympathies  and  affections,  were  all  employed  to  alienate  our 
colonies.  In  the  present  year,  Hessian  troops  had  been  hired  to 
inflict  on  American  farmers  and  tradesmen  the  horrors  of  war. 
The  American  provinces  were  treated  with  military  license ;  houses 
burnt,  property  plundered,  friends  estranged,  enemies  exaspe- 
rated. To  complete  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  Indian  savages 
were  excited  to  hostilities  against  the  King's  subjects. 

But  the  power  which  was  thus  made  an  object  of  hatred  was 

1  13  Janyler,  1777. 
VOL.  I. — 12 


134  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  27. 

made  also  one  of  contempt.  General  Howe  was  forced  to  evacu- 
ate Boston,  spiking  his  cannon,  and  abandoning  his  stores,  for 
want  of  adequate  reinforcements.  The  spirits  of  the  Americans 
were  raised  to  the  highest  pitch,  while  their  passions  were  inflam- 
ed to  the  most  intense  resentment. 

Thus  encouraged,  and  thus  excited,  the  Congress,  on  the  4th  of 
July,  agreed  to  the  memorable  Declaration  of  Independence. 
The  wrongs  inflicted  or  threatened  by  George  III.  were  enumerat- 
ed; and  in  conclusion  it  was  declared — 

"^Ye,  therefore,  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  in  General  Congress  assembled,  appealing  to  the  Su- 
preme Judge  of  the  World  for  the  rectitude  of  our  intentions,  do, 
in  the  name,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  good  people  of  these 
colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare  that  these  United  Colonies 
are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be.  Free  and  Independent  States." 

This  declaration  was  the  cry  of  an  infant  State.  It  has  since 
grown  to  manhood;  it  has  now  a  giant's  strength. 

Whether  it  would  have  been  possible  to  maintain  the  colonies 
in  subjection  to  the  Crown  of  England  for  a  much  longer  period, 
may  well  be  doubted.  Trade  regulated  at  Westminster  could 
hardly  be  consistent  with  wealth  and  freedom  at  New  York. 
Sources  of  dispute  might  have  arisen,  even  if  the  plan  of  Lord 
Rockingham,  or  that  of  Lord  Chatham,  had  been  fully  adopted. 
But  it  was  the  peculiar  infelicity  of  George  III.  and  Lord  North 
that  they  turned  to  gall  all  those  feelings  of  filial  piety  which 
had  so  long  filled  the  breasts  of  the  Americans. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  has  one  singular  defect  in  it, 
but  which  only  proves  the  lingering  affection  which  the  Americans 
still  retained  for  the  mother  country. 

As  Mr.  Jefi"erson  originally  drew  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, he  charged  the  acts  of  which  the  Americans  complained, 
in  the  first  place  to  the  King,  but  secondly  to  the  people  of  Great 
Britain.  Thus,  he  said  of  them,  that  "when  occasions  have  been 
given  them,  by  the  regular  course  of  their  laws,  of  removing  from 
their  councils  the  disturbers  of  our  harmony,  they  have,  by  their 
free  election,  re-established  them  in  power.''     Then,  again,  he 


1777.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  135 

proposed  to  say,  "These  facts  have  given  the  last  stab  to  agoniz- 
ing affection,  and  manly  spirit  bids  us  to  renounce  for  ever  these 
unfeeling  brethren.  We  must  endeavor  to  forget  our  former 
love  for  them,  and  hold  them,  as  we  hold  the  rest  of  mankind, 
enemies  in  war,  in  peace  friends.  We  might  have  been  a  free 
and  a  great  people  together;  but  a  communication  of  grandeur 
and  of  freedom,  it  seems,  is  below  their  dignity.  Be  it  so,  since 
they  will  have  it.  The  road  to  happiness  and  glory  is  open  to  us 
too.     We  will  tread  it  apart  from  them,''  &c.  » 

These  expressions,  though  still  in  the  tone  of  wounded  affection, 
rather  than  of  willing  enmity,  were  too  hostile  to  the  English 
people  to  please  the  representatives  of  America.  "The  pusilla- 
nimous idea  that  we  had  friends  in  England  worth  keeping  terms 
with,"  says  Mr.  Jefferson,  "still  haunted  the  minds  of  many."^ 
More  probably  the  fond  regard  long  entertained  for  the  mother 
country  still  vibrated  in  the  hearts  of  most  of  those  who  now  threw 
off  her  authority. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  omission  of  these  passages  warped  the 
truth  of  this  memorable  Declaration.  George  III.  appears  in  it 
as  a  single  and  despotic  tyrant;  as  Philip  II.  must  have  appeared 
to  the  people  of  the  Netherlands.  The  fact  was  that  the  Sove- 
reign and  his  people  were  alike  prejudiced,  angry,  and  wilful.* — 
J.  R. 

1777. 

*  The  year  1777  may  be  said  to  have  decided  in  favor  of  our 
colonies  the  question  of  American  independence,  which  had  been 
so  boldly  put  forth  by  them  in  the  preceding  year. 

The  march  of  Burgoyne  from  Canada,  with  a  view  to  break 
the  line  of  provincial  defence,  and  insulate  the  New  England 
States,  ended  in  his  surrender  at  Saratoga.  It  was  not  disgrace- 
ful to  the  British  arms  that  3500  soldiers,  pushed  forward  into  a 
hostile  country  without  aid  from  the  front  or  retreat  in  their  rear, 
should  capitulate  to  15,000  Americans,  aided  by  numerous  de- 

^  Memoirs  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  vol.  i. 


136  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  28. 

tachments,  wlio  occupied  the  surrounding  country.  But  the  fail- 
ure of  the  enterprise  showed  the  folly  of  the  contest ;  it  was  im- 
possible to  occupy  with  an  army  the  vast  extent  of  the  colonial 
states,  and  it  was  evident  that  no  willing  submission  could  be  ex- 
pected. The  naval  means  of  Great  Britain  could  only  hold  the 
fringe  of  the  coast,  and  that  not  completely  or  entirely. 

In  the  same  year  Lord  Chatham  made  one  more  effort  to  retain 
the  dependency  of  the  transatlantic  provinces  by  affection.  He 
owned  he  could  no  longer  hope  success  from  the  terms  he  had 
formerly  proposed,  and  he  now,  therefore,  moved  an  address  to 
the  Crown,  urging  compliance  with  all  the  demands  of  America, 
with  the  exception  of  independence.  His  motion,  though  sup- 
ported by  the  Whigs,  was  rejected  by  a  large  majority. 

The  success  of  America  was  owing,  next  to  the  errors  of  her 
adversaries,  to  the  conduct  and  character  of  General  Washington. 
In  him  were  united  the  purity  of  the  most  disinterested  patriotism 
with  all  the  energy  of  the  most  stirring  ambition;  the  utmost  re- 
luctance to  engage  in  the  contest,  with  the  firmest  will  never  to 
abandon  it  when  begun ;  the  most  intrepid  devotion  of  his  life  and 
his  fame  in  hazardous  attacks,  with  the  calmest  judgment  in  all 
matters  political  and  military.  The  dissensions  of  Congress,  the 
envy  of  rivals,  the  apathy  of  his  troops,  the  calumnies  of  his 
enemies,  neither  excited  him  to  rashness,  nor  stopped  him  in  his 
career.* — j.  r. 

February.  Walpole  having  information  that  a  bill  to  suspend 
the  Habeas  Corpus  throughout  America  was  intended  by  Minis- 
ters, had  communicated  this  intelligence  to  Charles  Fox  and 
others,  who  he  says  would  not  believe  it  till  the  bill  was  actually 
brought  into  Parliament. — H.  w. 

The  Bockingham  party  being  at  that  time  in  secession,  "Lord 
Bockingham  held  a  meeting  to  consider  whether  they  should  re- 
turn and  oppose,  and  they  had  great  divisions.  Lord  Bocking- 
ham, the  Cavendishes,  and  Burke  adhered  to  their  stupid  retreat; 
but  Charles  Fox  would  not,  and  even  Sir  G.  Savile,  though  more 
attached  to  Lord  Bockingham,  was  so  honest  as  to  attend  the 
House  on  the  third  reading,  and  spoke  against  the  bill.'^ 


1777.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  137 

Charles  Fox  opposed  the  second  reading.  "Lord  North  ridi- 
culed him,  and  said  he  should  not  have  known  the  Opposition 
was  so  insignificant  if  the  gentleman  had  not  owned  it.  It  was 
voted  bj  195  to  43.'^ 

13th.  Lord  North  accepted  a  clause  in  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Bill  proposed  by  Dunning,  "to  the  indignation  of  Rigby/^  says 
H.  Walpole,  "and  all  the  violent."  "Charles  Fox,  in  an  admi- 
rable speech,  complimented  Lord  North  on  his  candor  and  uni- 
versal benevolence;  said  he  should  consider  him  as  the  head  of 
the  seceders,  and  their  guardian  against  the  violence  of  his  coad- 
jutors. But  Lord  North's  conduct  that  day  had  been  so  desult- 
ory and  uncertain,  that  the  courtiers  interpreted  the  panegyric  as 
a  sarcasm/' 

"  Wedderburne,  whom  Charles  Fox  had  treated  severely,  re- 
covered himself,  and  made  one  of  his  best  speeches,  that  hurt 
Fox  much,  drawing  a  parallel  between  him  and  Wilkes,  and  ridi- 
culing universal  benevolence  (to  which  he  unfairly  added  the  word 
equal)  and  said  all  great  writers  had  given  up  the  idea  of  equal 
universal  benevolence." 

April  16.  On  Lord  J.  Cavendish's  motion  for  inquiring  into 
accounts  relating  to  the  King's  debts,  "Charles  Fox  made  a 
speech  that  even  the  courtiers  allowed  to  be  one  of  his  finest  ora- 
tions, but  then  they  commended  it  because  it  was  remarkably 
decent  and  respectful  to  the  King — 218  to  114." 

April  18.  "On  the  Report,  Lord  North  made  a  good  speech, 
in  which  he  attempted  to  answer  Fox's  of  the  preceding  day — a 
proof  of  the  excellence  of  the  latter,  as  Lord  North  had  taken 
two  days  to  answer  it.  As  Charles  Fox  had  defended  the  Duke 
of  Grafton's  conduct.  Lord  North  was  very  severe  on  it." 

"Charles  Fox  asked  Lord  North  if  he  thought  the  addition  of 
100,000Z.  would  be  sufficient  without  coming  for  more.  Lord 
North  said  he  thought  it  would  till  the  Prince  of  Wales  should 
be  grown  up.  Charles  asked  if  he  would  pledge  himself.  Rigby 
said  Lord  North  was  not  bound  to  answer  questions  from  indi- 
viduals; whenever  it  had  been  done,  an  ill  use  had  been  made  of 

12* 


138  COERESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  28. 

it.     Perhaps  Lord  North  might  not  be  in  power  when  the  Prince 
shall  be  married;  how  then  can  he  pledge  himself?" 

May  9.  Rigby  alluded  w^ith  disapprobation  to  the  Speaker's 
famous  speech  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords,  in  which  he  said 
the  grants  were  great  beyond  example,  great  beyond  his  Majesty's 
highest  wants.  ''The  Speaker,  Norton  (after  the  debate),  com- 
plained of  Rigby's  attack,  and  Charles  Fox  proposed  words  in 

justification  of  the  speaker,  which  were  agreed  to  without  a  divi- 

•      J) 
sion. 

May  23.  ^^  A  job  of  the  Ministers  in  the  African  Company 
was  severely  treated  by  Charles  Fox."  ''The  Ministers  were 
forced  to  abandon  the  African  job,  which  had  been  countenanced 
by  Board  of  Trade." 

In  the  summer  of  1777,  Mr.  Fox  visited  Ireland  with  Lord 
John  Townshend.  It  was  a  mere  party  of  pleasure,  settled  be- 
tween them  when  riding  out  at  Chatsworth.  They  took  their 
horses  over,  and  accompanied  Conolly  and  Lady  Louisa  on  an 
excursion  to  the  Lakes  of  Killarney.  Mr.  Fox  made  acquaint- 
ance with,  and  indeed  contracted  a  sincere  friendship  for  Mr. 
Grattan,  whom  he  met  at  Lord  Charlemont's.  Irish  local  politics 
were  little  discussed,  and  had  not  at  that  time  much  attraction. 
While  at  Dublin  the  two  strangers  were  much  caressed  and  at- 
tended to,  and  were  constantly  invited  to  dinners,  where  there 
was  much  conversation  and  a  prodigious  quantity  of  wine.  A 
wild  and  hazardous  freak  of  Lord  John  Townshend  and  Mr.  Fox 
made  a  great  noise,  and,  what  seems  strange,  raised  their  reputa- 
tions in  Ireland,  where  everything  that  is  rash  is  considered  as 
a  proof  of  spirit.  They  bathed  in  the  Devil's  Punch  Bowl,  and 
fortunately  escaped  from  all  the  consequences  to  be  apprehended 
from  its  extreme  coldness.— v.  H. 

Mr.  Fox  had  now  resolved  to  connect  himself  avowedly  with 
the  Rockingham  party.  He  told  Lord  John  Townshend  so  at 
Chatsworth.  Mr.  Burke,  in  a  letter  directed  to  him  in  Ireland, 
urges  him  to  adopt  that  measure  ]  but  his  exhortations  were  super- 
fluous. He  was  already  resolved  to  do  so,  though  he  did  not  in 
full  form  till  1778,  or  even  1779.— v-  h. 


1777.]  CHARLES    JAMES   EOX.  139 

[Parliament  met  on  the  18th  of  November,  1777.]  The  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  letter  of  Lord  Ossory  to  his  brother,  Rich- 
ard Fitzpatrick,  then  in  America,  gives  an  account  of  the  first 
day's  debate  (20th  Nov.)-    It  is  dated  Ampthill,  27th  Nov.  1777. 

"The  most  material  event  I  have  to  mention  to  you  is  the 
meeting  of  Parliament  last  week.  You  will  see,  by  the  speech 
and  address,  that  we  have  so  much  pleasure  and  delight  in  the 
American  war,  that  we  pledge  ourselves  to  support  the  prosecution 
of  it,  notwithstanding  the  total  ignorance  we  are  in  respecting 
the  situation  of  our  armies.  There  was  scarce  the  difference  of 
a  vote  in  either  House.  In  ours,  for  two  days'  debate,  I  never 
remember  such  a  superiority  in  point  of  speaking,  argument,  rea- 
son, everything  but  numbers.  Our  friend  exceeded  himself,  and 
pronounced  a  grand  philippic  against  the  American  secretary, 
whom  he  held  up  as  the  author  of  all  the  mischief.  He  went 
rather  too  far,  and  the  House  did  not  go  along  with  him.  The 
epithets  he  bestowed  were — '  That  inauspicious  and  ill-omened 
character,  whose  arrogance  and  presumption,  whose  ignorance  and 
indbillf]/ — in  short,  he  quite  terrasseUd  him;  so  much  that  I 
think  he  will  never  exhibit  himself  to  that  House  as  its  leader, 
so  long  as  the  other  sits  in  it.  The  philippic  did  not  seem  unac- 
ceptable to  the  other  party  in  administration,  though  the  Premier 
declared  the  acquisition  of  the  secretary  was  a  great  credit  to  them. 
Burke,  Sir  Gr.  Savile,  and  General  Conway  were  all  excellent  in 
their  different  ways.  Old  Chatham  was  in  high  spirits;  the 
amendment  in  both  Houses  was  his,  and  they  say  parts  of  his 
speech  were  very  fine.  We  wait  for  news  for  our  (I  mean  Oppo- 
sition) proceedings.  It  is  my  opinion,  and  everybody's  that  has 
common  sense,  that  we  must  be  totally  demolished,  as  a  country, 
by  this  folly,  obstinacy,  and  insensibility." 

[Some  further  particulars  of  what  passed  in  the  Commons  are 
given  by  Walpole]  — ''  The  only  brilliant  part  of  the  debate  was 
a  bitter  philippic  on  Lord  Gr.  Germaine,  by  Charles  Fox,  in  his 
highest  manner.  He  called  him  an  ill-omened  and  inauspicious 
character,  and,  besides  blaming  the  choice  of  a  man  pronounced 
unfit  to  serve  the  Crown,  dwelt  on  his  ignorance  and  incapacity 


140  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  28. 

for  conducting  a  war.  The  attack  was  by  moderate  men  thought 
too  personal  and  too  severe.  It  was  felt  in  the  deepest  manner 
by  Lord  George,  w^ho  rose  in  the  utmost  consternation,  and  made 
the  poorest  figure.  He  said  the  man  in  the  world  who  he  chose 
should  abuse  him  had  done  so.  Greneral  Conway  said  the  next 
day  he  was  exactly  of  a  confrary  opinion.  Lord  North  handsomely 
defended  Lord  George,  and  said  he  was  glad  Fox  had  abandoned 
him,  an  old  hulk,  to  attack  a  man-of-war ;  but  afterwards  he  perhaps 
hurt  Lord  George  as  much  as  Fox  had  done,  for  the  latter  coming  up 
to  the  Treasury  benches.  Lord  North  said,  in  Lord  George's  hear- 
ing, 'Charles,  I  am  glad  you  did  not  fall  on  me  to-day,  for  you 
was  in  full  feather.'  '^ 

November  21.  On  a  motion  of  General  Conway's,  on  the  Re- 
port, "Wedderburne  blamed  Charles  Fox's  preceding  philippic, 
and  pretended  to  lay  down  rules  for  invectives.'^ 

HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

<' London,  November  2^,  1777. 
''Dear  Ossory: — 

''It  is  now  settled  that  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  and  I  in  the  Commons,  are  next  Tuesday  to  move  for 
a  state  of  the  nation.  We  do  not  propose  to  go  into  that  state 
before  Christmas,  and  I  take  it  for  granted,  the  Ministry  will 
give  us  our  motion;  but  we  shall  move  for  many  papers,  some  of 
which  will  probably  occasion  some  debate.  Lord  Chatham  ap- 
proves, and  will,  I  believe,  be  down.  We  have  not  divided  since 
you  went,  but  we  think  we  have  been  very  victorious  in  debate. 
Whether  we  shall  divide  on  Tuesday  will,  I  suppose,  a  good  deal 
depend  on  our  attendance.  Upon  this  state  of  the  thing,  you 
will  judge  whether  it  is  worth  your  while  to  come  up.  There  is 
no  news  yet  of  any  sort,  and  we  seem  almost  to  give  up  the 
thoughts  of  any.  People  in  general  seem  to  be  very  much  tired 
of  the  business,  and  though  we  have  not  yet  got  one  vote  tliis 
year,  I  cannot  help  thinking  we  are  grown  considerably  stronger 
in  public  opinion,  for  in  all  the  debates  we  have  had,  the  Minis- 


1777.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  141 

ters  have  said  nothing  to  give  people  hopes  for  the  future,  and 
little  in  justification  of  the  past.  I  am  clear  the  opinion  of  the 
majority  of  the  House  is  now  with  us.  I  cannot  help  flattering 
myself  that  opinions  will,  in  the  long  run,  have  their  influence 
on  votes.  At  all  events  we  ought  to  try,  for  though  what  we  do 
may  have  no  immediate  efl'ect,  yet  it  may  have  some  next  year, 
unless  some  unexpectedly  favorable  events  should  make  people 
once  more  as  mad  and  as  sanguine  as  they  were  last  year.  Pray 
make  my  best  respects  to  Lady  Ossory.'' 

[So  far  as  the  independence  of  America  was  concerned,  the 
surrender  of  Burgoyne's  army  was  decisive.  The  impression 
which  the  first  intelligence  of  this  disaster  made  on  some  even 
of  the  stanchest  supporters  of  the  war  appears  in  the  following 
letter  of  Mr.  Crawford  to  Lord  Ossory; — ] 

MR.  CRAWFORD  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

*'  December  4,  1777. 
"My  dear  Lord: — 

''  The  papers  of  to-day  contain  a  full  account  of  all  we  know 
of  the  unfortunate  fate  of  Burgoyne's  army.  I  had  not  time  to 
inform  you  of  it  last  night.  I  passed  the  whole  day  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  was  too  much  interested  to  go  up  stairs  to  write 
a  few  lines  to  you. 

"Charles  made  a  motion  to  have  the  instructions  given  to 
General  Burgoyne  relative  to  the  Canada  expedition,  and  that 
part  of  Sir  W.  Howe's  instructions  relative  to  his  co-operation 
with  Burgoyne  laid  before  the  House.  Nobody  could,  or  attempt- 
ed to,  make  the  least  objection  to  this  motion,  further  than  that 
it  was  premature,  as  no  authentic  account  of  this  unfortunate 
news  was  yet  arrived.  The  previous  question  was  put  upon  it, 
and  passed  without  a  division.  But  if  news  does  not  arrive  before 
the  holidays,  Charles  means  to  renew  his  motion,  and  I  should 
think  must  be  supported  in  it  by  many  of  the  friends  of  Govern- 
ment.    It  is  impossible,  I  suppose,  to  receive  the  news  of  the 


142  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  28. 

loss  of  an  army,  and  to  refuse  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  such 
a  miscarriage^  even  though  we  cannot  get  at  all  the  information 
that  is  necessary.  Charles  spoke  with  great  violence,  but  the 
House  for  this  time  went  along  with  him.  We  were  not  shocked 
at  his  talking  of  bringing  Lord  George  to  a  second  trial,  nor  were 
we  shocked  at  being  asked  if  we  could  patiently  continue  to  sub- 
mit to  see  this  nation  disgraced  by  him  in  every  capacity.  There 
were  high  words  between  Wedderburne  and  Burke,  which  so  offend- 
ed the  latter,  that  he  went  out  of  the  House,  and  I  believe  in- 
tended to  challenge  Wedderburne,  but  was  prevented  by  a  letter 
from  Wedderburne,  and  an  explanation  likewise,  which  he  sent 
him  through  Charles.  In  the  midst  of  Wedderburne' s  speaking, 
Burke  burst  into  one  of  his  loud  hysterical  laughs.  Unfortunate- 
ly at  that  moment  there  was  a  dead  silence  in  the  House.  Wed- 
derburne, in  a  very  angry  tone,  said  that,  if  that  gentleman  did 
not  know  manners,  lie  as  an  individual  would  teach  them  to  him; 
that  he  had  not  the  good-will  of  that  gentleman,  and  did  not 
wish  for  it ;  but  he  was  ambitious  of  having  eveii  his  respect,  and 
would  force  it  from  him,  &c.  This  the  other  construed  into  a 
menace.  It  is  impossible  to  give  an  account  of  a  conversation 
of  this  kind,  which  depends  entirely  upon  the  tone  and  manner; 
but  I  know  Lady  0.  would  not  have  forgiven  me  if  I  had  not 
attempted  it,  and  it  is  for  her,  and  not  for  you,  that  I  have  given 
this  imperfect  description  of  a  quarrel,  which  is  very  well  settled 
on  both  sides.  Burke  was  originally  in  the  wrong,  because  no- 
thing could  be  more  uncivil  than  his  laugh  appeared  to  be,  from 
the  accident  of  the  dead  silence  of  the  House  at  that  moment.'^ 

December  2.  '^Charles  Fox  made  the  same  motion  for  papers 
in  the  Commons  which  the  Duke  of  Richmond  made  in  the  Lords. 
He  [Charles  Fox]  shone  eminently  again,  attacking  Lord  Gr.  Ger- 
maine,  whom  he  compared  to  Sangrado,  who  would  persist  in 
drawing  blood  because  he  had  written  a  book  upon  bleeding.'' 
The  Lords  granted  the  papers,  the  Commons  refused  them  by  178 
to  89. 

December  3.  On  the  Army,  '^Charles  Fox  and  Burke  pressed 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  ,       143 

Lord  George  to  know  if  the  capture  of  Burgoyue  and  bis  army 
was  true.  He  was  forced  to  own  he  believed  it,  tbouQ-h  be  did 
not  know  it  officially.  The  Opposition,  instead  of  receiving  such 
a  national  indignity  with  serious  lamentation,  insulted  the  Minis- 
ters so  much,  that  the  majority  appeared  more  exasperated  and 
less  dejected  than  on  the  former  days  of  the  session.''  ^'Charles 
Fox  went  further,  and  told  Lord  George  that  he  hoped  to  see 
him  brought  to  a  second  trial,  and  abused  Ministers  on  their  stu- 
pidity and  ignorance.  On  Lord  George  saying  he  hoped  Burgoyne 
would  not  be  condemned  unheard,  Fox  flamed  still  more,  and 
charged  Lord  George  with  the  whole  blame  of  the  badness  of  the 
plan." 

December  4.  ^' There  was  a  short  but  warm  debate  on  the  re- 
newal of  the  [suspension  of  the]  Habeas  Corpus,  and  Fox  charg- 
ing Thurlow  with  it  as  a  black  act,  Thurlow  answered  him  warm- 
ly, and  asked  if,  supposing  his  character  a  black  one,  Fox's  was 
a  white  one." 

December  10.  On  Lord  North's  giving  notice  of  a  plan  for 
treating  with  the  Americans,  "Burke  and  Fox  abused  him,  and 
told  him  the  Ministers  thought  of  nothing  but  keeping  their 
places." 

December  15.  "Burgoyne's  account  [of  his  surrender]  was  in 
his  usual  bombast  and  absurd  style;  he  talked  of  having  dictated 
the  terms  of  his  surrender,  and  lest  it  should  not  be  published  at 
length  in  the  'Gazette,'  he  sent  one  copy  to  Lord  Derby,  and 
another  to  Charles  Fox." 


1778. 

*  The  surrender  of  Burgoyne's  army  at  Saratoga  soon  ripened 
into  a  formal  treaty  the  negotiations  between  France  and  the 
United  Colonies.  Franklin  and  M.  Gerard,  on  the  6th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1778,  signed  the  treaty  of  peace  and  commerce  at  Paris. 

Such  was  another  act  in  this  miserable  tragedy.  The  House  of 
Commons  was  afflicted,  gloomy,  and  silent.  The  house  of  Bour- 
bon grasped  eagerly  at  the  prospect  of  recovering  the  colonies 


144  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^ETAT.  29. 

lost  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.     The  Minister  begged,  in  vain, 
permission  to  retire. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  these  proofs  of  folly,  and  the  pressure  of 
so  many  calamities,  roused  to  the  highest  pitch  of  indignation 
the  eloquent  voices  of  Chatham,  of  Fox,  and  of  Burke.* — J.  R. 

January  22.  "Charles  Fox  moved  again  for  the  instructions 
to  Howe  and  Burgoyne,  and  falling  foul  on  the  many  obnoxious 
measures,  compared  the  present  reign  to  that  of  James  II.  Col- 
onel Lutterell  flew  into  a  rage,  but  could  not  express  what  he 
meant,  but  muttered  something  of  Fox  declaring  he  would  talk 
treason.  Lord  North,  to  avoid  the  charge,  owned  it  had  been 
almost  treason.'' 

January  27.  ''Charles  Fox,  in  an  admirable  speech,  attacked 
Lord  North,  on  having  called  himself  an  unfortunate  minister, 
and  proved  that  all  the  disgraces  had  happened  by  ignorance, 
blunders,  and  misconduct — not  by  misfortune.  Lord  North  an- 
swered with  some  humor;  and  as  Fox  had  accused  him  of  idle- 
ness, and  of  listening  to  flatterers,  he  said  he  passed  a  great  deal 
of  time  in  that  house,  where  he  could  not  be  idle,  and  it  was 
plain  he  was  not  flattered.'' 

January  29.  ''  Colonel  Lutterell  complained  of  a  misrepresent- 
ation in  the  newspapers,  but  in  fact  it  could  not  be  made  worse. 
He  had  been  so  absurd,  and  so  furious,  that  many  thought  he 
had  been  set  on  by  the  Ministers  to  provoke  Charles  Fox  to  a 
duel."^ 

February  2.  A  motion  on  state  of  the  nation  was  made  by 
Charles  Fox,  "after  a  speech  of  two  hours  and  forty  minutes, 
in  which  he  recapitulated  the  events,  history,  and  misconduct  of 
the  war  with  astonishing  memory  and  method.     The  Ministers 

^  The  Morning  Post,  a  paper  notoriously  paid  by  the  Court,  abused 
Fox  on  this  occasion  in  the  most  outrageous  terms,  and  accused  him  of 
cowardice  in  not  challenging  Lutterell,  which  it  evidently  tried  to  make 
him  do.  Even  Lutterell  was  ashamed  of  such  assassinating  endeavors, 
made  excuses  to  Fox,  and  hoped  he  did  not  suspect  him  of  being  accessory 
to  so  black  a  design. — H.  W. 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  145 

did  not  make  one  word  of  answer,  but  most  indecently  called  for 
the  question,  when  it  was  rejected  by  259  to  165;  a  surprising 
minority,  that  much  alarmed  the  Administration.'' 


HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK  (then  in  America). 

"London,  February  3,  1778. 
"  My  dear  Richard  : — 

''Though  I  have  been  unpardonably  idle  about  writing  to  you, 
yet  I  suspect  that  I  appear  still  more  so  than  I  deserve;  for,  by 
your  never  mentioning  it,  I  take  it  for  granted  you  never  received 
a  long  letter  I  wrote  you  from  Chatsworth. 

''I  am  more  angry  with  myself  than  you  can  conceive  for  not 
writing  oftener,  but  I  have  put  it  off,  as  you  know  I  do  every- 
thing, from  day  to  day,  in  hopes  of  having  something  to  tell  you 
worth  hearing.  I  am  sure,  however,  you  do  not  really  believe 
what  you  say,  of  your  being  forgotten  by  your  friends  here ;  if 
you  could  really  think  so  with  regard  to  me  for  one  moment,  it 
would  make  me  more  unhappy  than  almost  any  misfortune  you 
can  conceive.  You  know  how  very  highly  I  rate  friendship 
among  the  goods  of  life,  and  how  highly  I  rate  yours,  is,  I  am 
sure,  needless  to  say ;  but  I  will  say  no  more  on  the  subject, 
because  I  am  sure  you  cannot  know  me  so  little  as  to  think  it 
possible  I  should  ever  change  with  regard  to  you,  and  you  are 
not  the  sort  of  person  to  take  a  little  negligence  seriously.  I 
find,  upon  examining  your  different  letters,  that  two  have  been 
lost,  the  one  you  sent  by  Lord  Deerhurst,  and  one  you  mention 
to  have  sent  by  an  Indiaman.  You  have  probably  heard  the 
story  of  Deerhurst' s  already.  He  says  that  when  he  came  to 
London,  he  heard  I  was  at  Mistley,^  and  so  put  the  letter  in  the 
post.  The  letter  never  arrived  at  Mistley,  nor  could  any  trace 
be  found  of  it  at  any  of  the  post-offices  near  Mistley.  What  to 
think  of  the  matter  is  difficult,  but  it  vexed  me  extremely,  as  it 


*  It  should  seem  by  this  that  Mr.  Fox  was  still  in  habits  with  Rigby, 
■whose  place  Mistley  was. — V.  H. 
VOL.  I. — 13 


146  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [JSTAT.  29. 

was  your  first  letter  from  America,  and  might  possibly  contain 
many  interesting  things.  All  your  other  letters  I  have  received, 
and  am  beyond  measure  obliged  to  you  for  them.  I  think  you 
are  the  best  describer  of  military  operations  I  ever  knew,  for  I 
perfectly  understand  them  by  your  letters,  which  I  scarce  ever 
do  from  those  of  others.  What  a  scene  of  folly  it  has  been ! 
But  it  has  not  yet  had  all  the  effect  here  that  you  at  a  distance 
imagine  it  would  have.  I  think  you  are  too  violent  in  some  of 
your  ideas,  but,  as  this  letter  may  possibly  be  read  by  others  as 
well  as  you,  I  cannot  now  tell  you  my  mind  upon  those  subjects. 
What  the  Ministers  intend  doing  besides  keeping  their  places, 
upon  which  they  are  very  decided,  I  cannot  even  guess.  They 
know  as  little  how  to  make  peace  as  war.  In  short,  they  are  as 
completely  at  a  non  plus  as  people  can  be ;  but  they  still  keep  a 
great  majority,  though  we  begin  to  increase  considerably ;  we 
divided  last  night  (2d  February,  on  motion  for  a  state  of  the 
nation)  165  to  259,  which  is  certainly  a  very  good  division 
compared  with  the  past,  but  a  very  bad  one  in  my  mind  consider- 
ing the  circumstances  of  the  country.  I  made  the  motion  in  a 
very  long  speech,  in  which  T  went  over  the  whole  of  the  Ameri- 
can business,  and  I  really  thought  the  House  went  a  good  deal 
with  me  in  most  of  it.  I  purposely  avoided  all  topics  that 
related  to  the  justice  of  the  war,  and  confined  myself  merely  to 
the  absurdity  of  it  in  all  its  parts,  and  the  absolute  madness  of 
continuing  it.  The  resolution  moved  was  that  none  of  the  old 
corps  now  in  Europe  should  be  spared  for  the  American  war. 
We  had  several  Tories  with  us,  and  I  really  think  it  was  a  great 
day  for  us.  The  Ministry,  not  by  concert,  I  believe,  but  by 
accident,  did  not  say  one  word,  which  scandalized  even  their  own 
friends  a  good  deal,  as  I  had  opened  the  afiair  so  very  fully ;  for 
I  spoke  two  hours  and  forty  minutes.  They  now  pretend  to  say 
that  Ellis  and  Wedderburne  were  up  (I  did  not  see  them),  and 
Avhile  they  were  complimenting  one  another,  the  question  was 
put.  The  fact  is,  that  it  is  such  a  cause  as  no  man  can  defend 
well,  and  therefore  nobod}^  likes  to  attempt  it.  We  shall  soon 
go  into  an  inquiry  upon  the  Canada  Expedition,  in  which  how 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  147 

Lord  G.  [George  Germaine]  will  defend  himself,  is  much  above 
my  comprehension.  They  mean  to  be  hard  upon  Burgoyne, 
which  is  a  baseness  beyond  what  even  you  or  I  could  have 
expected  from  them.  The  inquiry  is  also  in  my  hands,  so  that 
I  have  business  enough,  indeed  more  than  I  can  well  manage ; 
for,  though  I  like  the  House  of  Commons  itself,  I  hate  the  pre- 
paratory business  of  looking  at  accounts,  drawing  motions,  &c., 
as  much  as  you  could  do.  /  am  convinced  we  shall  so  far  suc- 
ceed as  to  get  great  divisions  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  to 
convince  all  the  world  that  the  Ministers  deserve  all  possible 
contempt  ]  hut  when  we  have  done  thaty  I  think  we  shall  have 
done  all  we  can  doj  and  that  the  Ministers^  though  despised  every - 
where,  and  hy  everyhody,  will  still  continue  3Iinisters.  I  am 
thoroughly  persuaded  of  this,  but  the  general  opinion  is  other- 
wise. There  is  a  report  of  Lord  Chatham  being  to  come  in 
immediately,  but  I  have  good  reasons  for  totally  disbelieving  it. 
I  think  I  have  given  you  enough  of  politics,  considering  I  have 
nothing  but  reports  and  conjectures  to  give  you.  With  respect 
to  my  own  share,  I  can  only  say  that  people  flatter  me  that  I 
continue  to  gain,  rather  than  lose,  my  credit  as  an  orator ;  and  / 
am  so  convinced  that  this  is  all  that  I  ever  shall  gain  {iinless  1 
choose  to  become  the  meanest  of  men),  that  I  never  think  of  any 
other  object  of  ambition. 

"  /  am  certainly  ambitious  by  nature,  but  I  really  have,  or 
think  I  have,  totally  subdued  that  passion.  I  have  still  as  much 
vanity  as  ever,  which  is  a  happier  passion  by  far ;  because  great 
reputation  I  think  I  may  acquire  and  keep,  great  situation  I  never 
can  acquire,  nor,  if  acquired,  keep  without  making  sacrifices  that 
I  never  will  make.  If  I  am  wrong,  and  more  sanguine  people 
right,  taut  mieux,  and  I  shall  be  as  happy  as  they  can  be;  but  if 
I  am  right,  I  am  sure  I  shall  be  the  happier  for  having  made 
up  my  mind  to  my  situation.  I  need  not  say  how  happy  I  am 
at  the  thoughts  of  your  coming  ;  I  should  be  so  at  all  times,  but 
I  really  want  you  at  present  to  a  great  degree.  I  have  other 
friends  whom  I  love,  and  who  I  believe  love  me,  but  I  foresee 
possible  cases  where  I  am  determined  to  act  against  all  the  advice 


148  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  29. 

that  they  are  likely  to  give  me.  I  know  they  will  not  shake  me, 
for  nothing  ever  shall ;  but  yet  it  would  be  a  great  satisfaction 
to  have  you  here,  who  I  know  would  be  of  my  opinion.  You 
guess,  I  dare  say,  the  sort  of  cases  I  mean.  I  shall  be  told  by 
prudent  friends  that  I  am  under  no  sort  of  engagements  to  any 
set  of  men.  I  certainly  am  not,  but  there  are  many  cases  where 
there  is  no  engagement,  and  yet  it  is  dishonorable  not  to  act  as 
if  there  was  one.  But  even  suppose  it  were  quite  honorable,  is 
it  possible  to  be  happy  in  acting  with  people  of  whom  one  has 
the  worst  opinions,  and  being  on  a  cold  footing  (which  must  be 
the  case)  with  all  those  whom  one  loves  best,  and  with  whom  one 
passes  one's  life  ?  I  have  talked  to  you  a  great  deal  about 
myself,  but  I  know  it  will  interest  you,  and  I  have  really  little 
else  to  tell  you,  as  I  know  Ossory  has  written  to  you.  Hare  and 
Jack  Townshend  are  well.  Bully  [Lord  Bolingbroke]  was 
believed  by  everybody  to  be  married  to  a  Miss  Curtis,  with 
50,000?.,  but  it  was  all  off,  I  do  not  know  how.  He  and  I,  and 
several  others,  are  just  going  to  dine  at  nine  o'clock  at  Derby's. 
The  old  Duke  [Devonshire]  I  like  better  than  ever;  Foley's 
affairs  are  likely  to  be  settled  to  his  mind.  Is  there  anybody 
else  to  mention  ?  Lord  Robert  goes  on  as  usual.  Egremont  has 
lived  lately  too  much  in  the  country.  En  general,  tout  va  son 
train.  Selwyn  has  been  cut  up  for  a  large  sum,  after  having 
been  fattening  for  a  month,  and  the  old  fish  [Mr.  Crawford]  is 
constantly  talking  of  the  certainty  of  his  brother's  being  ruined, 
.  and  so  the  world  goes  on. — Adieu.  Dickson  begs  to  be  remem- 
bered to  you.  Pray  give  my  kindest  love  to  my  brother,  and 
tell  him  I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  now  and  then  a  linp  from 
him.  Do  not  expect  to  find  any  change  in  politics  when  you 
arrive,  for,  if  you  do,  you  will  be  most  certainly  disappointed.  I 
can  find  nobody  of  our  side,  but  Lord  Camden  and  Burke,  who 
agree  with  me  in  desponding,  but  depend  upon  it  we  are  right. 
We  are,  and  ever  shall  he,  as  much  proscribed  as  ever  the  Jaco- 
bites were  formerly. 

"  Adieu, 

"  Yours,  most  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 


1778.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  140 

This  admirable  and  amiable  letter  seems  to  foresee,  to  explain, 
and  to  justify  Mr.  Fox's  conduct  throughout  his  life,  in  private 
and  public.  It  contains  the  most  artless  yet  forcible  expressions 
of  friendship  and  confidence  to  the  person  who  was  to  the  day 
of  his  death  his  chief  adviser  and  dearest  friend.  It  lays  down 
the  fixed  principles  which  were  the  guide  of  his  political  career. 
It  announces  his  determination  to  adhere  to  the  doctrines  and 
the  party  of  the  Whigs,  while  it  proves  that  he  was  aware  that 
such  adherence  could  lead  to  neither  power  nor  emolument,  and 
that  he  could  avoid  it  and  adopt  a  more  profitable  course  without 
exposing  himself  to  the  reproach  of  breaking  any  engagement. — 
V.  H. 

February  6.  "  Wonderful  speech  of  Burke  on  Burgoyne's 
invitation  to  Indians  :  his  wit  made  North,  Bigby,  and  Ministers 
laugh ;  his  pathos  di-ew  tears  down  Barre's  cheeks.'' 

On  the  10th,  "  The  Ministers  apprehending  a  motion  from 
Charles  Fox,  and  alarmed  at  late  increase  of  the  minority," 
urgently  pressed  their  friends,  and  brought  down  even  the  sick. 
"  Charles  Fox  did  carry  [down]  a  string  of  twelve  motions.  The 
first,  which  was  debated  till  night,  was  for  a  regular  and  general 
state  of  the  army,  seconded  by  George  Grenville;  the  debate 
was  a  heavy  one,  and  the  motion  rejected  by  263  to  149." 
^'February  17.  '^  A  day  ever  memorable  as  one  of  the  most 
ignominious  in  the  English  annals."  Lord  North^  opened  his 
conciliatory  plan,  ventured  on  taking  the  very  opposite  part  to 
all  his  administration  had  been  doing,  and  presumed  to  tell  the 
three  kingdoms  that  they  must  abandon  all  the  high  views  with 
which  they  had  been  lulled,  and  must  stoop  to  beg  peace  of 
America  at  any  rate.  He  declared  he  would  treat  with  the 
Congress,  with  anybody;  would  even  allow  the  independence 
of  the  colonies,  not  verbally,  but  virtually  ;  owned  his  disappoint- 
ments, and  recurred  to  his  usual  defence.  Every  Act  had  been 
the  act  of  the  House  and  of  Parliament.  All  the  comfort  he 
gave  the  country  gentlemen  was  some  hopes  that  America  might 

'  Abvit-lged  from  H.  Walpole's  acoount  by  Lord  Holland. — J.  R. 


150  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  29. 

be  induced  to  contribute  some  pecuniary  assistance.  This  was 
the  pith  of  his  speech.  ''  The  astonishment  of  great  part  of 
the  House  at  such  extensive  offers  precluded  all  expression. 
The  Opposition  felt  honestly  they  could  not  decently  disapprove 
a  pacification  they  had  so  much  recommended,  and  during  the 
course  of  the  bill  the  Ministers  had  the  satisfaction  of  finding 
this  integrity  operate  on  some  of  the  most  upright,  but  least 
clear-sighted.  Lord  G-.  Cavendish  and  Frederick  Montague 
pressed  the  Ministers  not  to  lose  a  moment  in  passing  the  bills, 
an  instance  of  more  virtue  than  judgment.  The  Tories,  who 
could  not  like  concessions  so  inadequate  to  their  hopes  and  so 
repugnant  to  their  high-flown  attachment  to  the  Prerogative, 
seeing  the  intemperate  zeal  of  the  Opposition,  were  ashamed  to 
mark  themselves  as  an  obstinate  and  weak  party,  which  they 
would  be  if  they  separated  from  the  Court  when  approved  by 
Opposition.  Burke  and  Charles  Fox  yielded  to  and  seconded 
the  torrent,  but  the  latter  threw  a  bomb  that  much  disconcerted, 
though  it  did  not  disappoint,  the  Minister.  My  cousin,  Thomas 
Walpole,  had  acquainted  me  that  the  treaty  with  France  was 
signed.  We  agreed  to  inform  Charles  Fox,  but,  as  we  both  dis- 
trusted Burke,  and  feared  the  childish  fluctuations  of  Lord 
Rockingham,  we  determined  that  Fox  should  know  nothing  of 
the  secret  till  an  hour  or  two  before  the  House  met.  Accord- 
ingly, Thomas  Walpole  communicated  the  notice  of  the  treaty  to 
the  Duke  of  Grafton  on  the  16th,  and  engaged  him  to  acquaint 
Charles  Fox  but  just  before  the  House  should  meet  next  day. 
This  was  done  most  exactly,  and  Burke  knew  nothing  of  the 
matter  till  he  came  into  the  House.  As  soon  as  Lord  North  had 
opened  his  two  bills,  Charles  Fox  rose,  and  after  pluming  himself 
on  having  sat  there  till  he  had  brought  the  noble  Lord  to  con- 
cur in  sentiments  with  him  and  his  friends,  he  astonished  Lord 
North  by  asking  him  whether  a  commercial  treaty  with  France 
had  not  been  signed  by  the  American  agents  at  Paris  within  the 
last  ten  days  ?  '  If  so,'  said  he,  '  the  Administration  is  beaten 
b}^  ten  days,  a  situation  so  threatening  that  in  such  a  time  of 
danger  the  House  must  concur  with  the  propositions,  though 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  151 

probably  now  tliey  would   have  no  effect.'     Lord   North   was 
thunderstruck,  and  would  not  rise. 

"Burke  maintained  that  Lord  North  had  taken  precisely  the 
plan  that  he  [Burke]  had  offered  two  years  before,  and  he  called 
on  him  to  answer  to  the  fact  of  the  treaty.  Still  the  Minister 
was  silent,  till  Sir  Gr.  Savile  rose  and  told  him  that  it  would  be 
criminal  and  a  matter  of  impeachment  to  withhold  an  answer, 
and  ended  with  crying,  ^  An  answer !  an  answer !  an  answer !' 
Lord  North,  thus  forced  up,  owned  he  had  heard  a  report  of  the 
treaty,  but  desired  to  give  no  answer  to  the  House  at  that 
moment;  he  had  no  official  intelligence  on  that  subject.  The 
report  might  be  vague.  Some  time  ago,  the  Ministers  of  France 
had  denied  it.  Such  evasive  answers  convinced  everybody  of  the 
truth  of  the  report. '^ 

March  3.  "  The  conciliatory  bills  were  passed  by  the  House 
of  Commons.  Towards  the  end  of  the  debate  [when  Charles 
Fox  was  gone  out  of  the  House],  Lord  Gr.  Germaine  rose,  and 
declared  he  looked  upon  himself  as  responsible  for  these  pacific 
measures." 

March  6.  On  the  Budget,  "Charles  Fox  poured  out  the 
bitterest  and  one  of  the  finest  of  all  his  philippics  against  Lord 
North,  taxing  him  with  breach  of  honor  in  having  declared  that 
he  would  resign  if  his  first  conciliatory  proposition  had  not  the 
desired  effect ;  that  he  had  broken  his  word,  that  he  had  this 
year  brought  measures  of  the  same  kind,  at  which  he  confessed 
he  felt  humbled,  though  not  ashamed ;  if  such  measures  did 
not  make  him  blush,  what  would  ?  And  in  this  style  he  spoke 
for  above  half  an  hour.'' 

March  9.  On  Gilbert's  motion  of  a  tax  of  twenty-five  per 
cent,  on  places  and  pensions  during  war,  which  was  carried 
against  Lord  North ;  Sir  G.  Savile,  Burke,  and  Fox  voted  with 
the  Ministry,  as  did  General  Conway  too.  Burke  and  Conway 
spoke.  "  In  the  House  of  Commons,  the  inquiry  was  carried 
into  the  state  of  the  Navy,  as  it  had  been  in  the  other  House, 
and  Charles  Fox  exerted  himself  in  exposing  the  ill  conduct  of 
the  Admiralty,  and  of  Lord  North,  whom  he   treated  with  the 


152  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  29. 

utmost  contempt  and  indignity/^  On  the  loth,  M.  de  Noailles 
communicated  the  fact  of  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  amity 
between  his  most  Christian  Majesty  and  the  Independent  States 
of  America. 

March  16.  On  a  motion  for  Lord  Stormont's  correspond- 
ence, "  Mr.  Burke,  Mr.  Dunning,  Mr.  Fox,  particularly  the  latter, 
censured  Lord  North  most  severely  for  ignorance  and  for  the 
situation  into  which  the  Ministers  had  brought  the  nation,  and 
with  great  contempt  for  proposing  unanimity." 

March  17.  In  the  House  of  Commons,  on  an  amendment 
for  removal  of  Ministers,  for  which  Mr.  Baker,  Sir  Gr.  Yonge, 
Conolly,  Greorge  G-renville,  and  Thomas  Pitt  had  spoken,  and  on 
which  General  Conway  had  made  a  long  speech,  "Charles  Fox 
paid  the  highest  compliments  to  Conway's  integrity  and  abilities, 
said  he  should  differ  from  him  in  nothing  but  in  demanding  the 
immediate  dismission  of  Ministers ;  would  declare  the  independ- 
ence of  America,  and  turn  the  commissioners  into  ambassadors. 
He  said.  Lord  North  had  talked  much  of  the  confusion  his 
resigning  would  occasion.  He  did  not  see  how  ;  he  did  see  what 
confusion  his  staying  would  make." 

March  19  ''  was  a  very  remarkable  day  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  inquiry  was  to  be  summed  up  upon  the  expedition 
of  Burgoyne ;  and  Charles  Fox  undertook  to  charge  Lord  Gr. 
Germaine  as  the  author  of  that  miscarriage,  by  not  having  given 
orders  sufficiently  explicit  to  General  Howe  to  endeavor  to  meet 
and  assist  Burgoyne.  Fox  made  the  charge  with  extraordinary 
temper  and  judgment,  and  without  any  acrimony.  He  said 
that  he  saw  too  many  of  the  King's  servants  were  involved  in 
criminality  to  make  personal  bitterness  to  any  single  man  ex- 
cusable. He  condemned,  he  said,  the  Canadian  expedition ;  but 
the  ignorance  of  the  Ministers  of  the  treaty  between  France 
and  the  Americans  had  effaced  that,  and  next  year  he  supposed 
it  would  be  so  much  exceeded  by  new  blunders,  that  he  should 
forget  it.  He  was  sorry,  in  this  ignorance,  to  be  forced  to  include 
his  own  friend  Lord  Weymouth.  These  parts  of  his  speech  gave 
the  chief  color  to  the  day.     Thurlow,  Lord  Weymouth's  creature 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  153 

and  intimate,  was  very  angry,  and  with  bitter  irony  said  he  hoped 
Mr.  Fox  would  never  be  his  friend.  Fox  rose  to  excuse  himself, 
but  launched  out  still  more  severely  against  Lord  Weymouth." 
— "  Towards  three  in  the  morning,  the  debate  took  a  new  and 
very  warm  turn.  The  Lord  Advocate  Dundas,  who  seemed  to 
be  set  up  by  the  Court  against  Charles  Fox,  rose  and  taunted 
him  with  his  moderation,  and  called  on  him  to  employ  his  usual 
invectives.  He  had,  at  the  beginning  of  the  session,  said  the 
Lord  Advocate,  overflowed  with  bitterness;  now  he  had  sifted 
the  conduct  of  Ministers,  he  found  nothing  to  say  against  them. 
This  speech,  and  the  small  minority  and  support  of  his  friends, 
several  of  whom  had  gone  away  from  lassitude  and  the  insipidity 
of  the  day,  provoked  Fox  to  the  utmost  rage.  He  burst  out 
into  a  torrent  of  abuse,  and  lost  all  temper  and  conduct."  After 
Lord  Gr.  Germaine's  speech  [which,  says  Walpole,  was  a  good 
one],  "  Charles  Fox  should  have  made  his  motion  of  censure  on 
Lord  George,  which  he  had  prepared,  but  in  his  passion  he  tore 
the  paper  and  went  away.  Charles  Fox  said  to  many  he  would 
attend  the  House  no  more,  of  which  probably  the  King  heard ', 
for  next  day.  Lord  Bolingbroke,  Fox's  friend,  being  in  waiting, 
the  King,  who  used  to  abhor  Fox's  name,  launched  out  into 
commendations  of  him." 

"  Fitzpatrick  had  distinguished  himself^  in  America,  and,  in 
an  "admirable  letter"  to  his  brother,  Lord  Ossory,  "expressed 
his  impatience  to  return,  saying  he  was  far  more  rooted  in  his 
principles  from  his  admiration  of  the  noble  behavior  of  the 
Americans  and  their  love  of  freedom,  and  disgusted  with  the 
army,  who  were  grown  to  abhor  the  name  of  Whigs,  and  had 
lost  all  attachment  to  liberty." 

April  6.  "  Sir  W.  Meredith,  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
moved  for  a  repeal  of  all  the  acts  inimical  to  the  Americans. 
In  the  course  of  the  debate,  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Burke  spoke  for 
greater  indulgence  to  Koman  Catholics."* 

'  I  suspect  Walpole  means  to  cast  a  censure  on  Burke  and  Fox  for 
these  opinions.     His  (Walpole's)  virulence  against  Catholics  is  most  in- 


154  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  29. 

While  sucli  were  tlie  debates  in  Parliament,  negotiations  had 
been  carried  on  by  the  Court — for  at  least  a  partial  change  of 
Ministry ;  but  in  order  to  make  these  intelligible,  I  must  refer  to 
a  correspondence  of  the  King,  of  a  somewhat  earlier  period. 

[On  the  4th  of  December,  1777,  after  accounts  had  arrived 
of  the  surrender  of  General  Burgoyne  and  his  army  at  Saratoga, 
the  King  congratulated  Lord  North  on  his  ^^  firmness  in  support- 
ing the  reverses  in  America/'  In  less  than  two  months  (31st 
January,  1778)  afterwards,  he  writes  to  him]  :  '^  1  should  have 
been  greatly  surprised  at  the  inclination  expressed  by  you  to 
retire,  had  I  not  known  that,  however  you  may  now  and  then 
despond,  yet  that  you  have  too  much  personal  affection  for  me 
and  sense  of  honor,  to  allow  such  a  thought  to  take  any  hold  on 
your  mind/'  [This  observation  was  doubtless  intended  to  deter 
Lord  North  from  his  wish  to  retire.  But  in  the  following  March 
this  desire  took  a  more  definite  shape,  and  it  became  necessary  to 
allow  Lord  North  to  make  some  attempts  to  form  a  stronger  govern- 
ment. In  these  negotiations,  the  leading  idea  of  Lord  North 
was  to  retire  in  favor  of  another  administration ;  that  of  the 
King  was  to  preserve  the  men  and  the  measures,  with  some  assist- 
ance to  aid  the  one  and  carry  the  other.] 

"  It  is  clear,''  says  Lord  Holland,  "  from  Lord  North's  cor- 
respondence with  the  King,  from  notes  of  Mr.  Eden,  afterwards 
Lord  Auckland,  and  from  other  papers,  that  previous  to,  in,  and 
about  1778,  several  negotiations  more  or  less  distinct,  and  all 
very  secret,  were  opened  with  different  persons  in  Opposition, 
and  among  them,  one  through  Mr.  Eden  with  Mr.  Fox,  and  another 
through  the  same  agent,  and  very  mysterious  and  secret,  with 
Lord  Shelburne.  The  object  of  these  negotiations  was  styled 
by  those  employed  in  them,  ^Secret  negotiations  for  a  new 
arrangement,'  and  it  was  explicitly  stated  by  them  that  'no 
arrangement  could  or  would  be  ever  listened  to  one  moment  except 

veterate.  One  of  his  cliarges  against  Government  is  their  toleration,  and 
one  of  his  insinuations  against  George  III.  that  he  was  half  a  papist!  — 
V.  H, 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  155 

on  the  ground  of  more  accession  of  capacity  for  business  in  a 
moment  which  would  require  great  exertions.'  The  negotiation 
with  Lord  Shelburne  seems  to  have  gone  off  from  the  large, 
vague,  and  general  terms  demanded  by  Lord  Chatham,  without 
whom  Lord  Shelburne  said  ^  no  good  could  be  done,  and  with 
whom  nothing  but  an  entire  change  of  Cabinet  and  law  appoint- 
ments would  be  practicable/  It  appears  that  many  similar  and 
previous  communications  between  the  Ministry  and  Lord  Chat- 
ham had  taken  place  ;  and  perhaps  they  continued  till  the  day  of 
his  seizure  in  the  House  of  Lords,  which  occurred  early  in  April/' 

What  passed  between  Mr.  Eden  and  Mr.  Fox  on  the  15th 
March,  1778,  is  related  in  the  subjoined  notes  of  the  former 
gentleman. 

It  confirms,  what  appears  from  many  other  documents,  that, 
even  up  to  1778,  Mr.  Fox  considered  himself,  and  was  considered 
by  others,  as  unconnected  with  any  party,  and  at  liberty  to  act 
without  concert,  though  not  much  disposed  to  do  so. — v.  H. 

''SECRET  NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  A  NEW  ARRANGEMENT  IN 
MARCH,  1778,  WHICH  FAILED. 

"  I  wrote  a  note  to  Mr.  Charles  Fox  that  I  wished  to  see  him, 
and  would  call  upon  him,  if  he  could  spare  five  minutes  from  the 
politics  of  the  day.  He  came  immediately  to  my  house  and 
dined  alone  with  me.  After  exchanging  assurances  that  nothing 
which  might  pass  between  us  should  ever  go  farther  than  to  those 
to  whom  I  might  think  myself  responsible,  and  never  to  any 
friend  of  his  except  with  my  previous  consent,  we  entered  into 
conversation  on  the  expediency  of  some  arrangement  for  the  pur- 
pose of  strengthening  both  the  apparent  and  real  efficiency  of 
Grovernment  at  this  crisis.  I  rather  speculated  on  changes  than 
proposed  any.  The  removal  of  the  American  Secretary  was 
much  liked.  An  office  like  the  Treasury  of  the  Navy  was  al- 
lowed to  be  more  eligible  than  a  responsible  office.  The  acquisi- 
tion of  the  Shelburnes  was  said  to  be  not  improbable.  Mr.  Fox 
stated  himself  to  be  unconnected  and  at  liberty.     He  also  said 


156  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  29. 

tliat,  except  with  Lord  Gr.  Gr.,  he  could  act  with  the  present  Min- 
isters ;  but  he  disavowed  every  possibility  of  accepting  singly  and 
alone,  and  even  doubted  whether  he  could  accept  in  any  case;  but 
he  expressed  a  desire  to  hear  again  from  me  if  any  other  set 
should  accede,  and  hinted  that  in  case  of  an  actual  arrangement 
he  should  hope  some  regard  would  be  shown  to  his  friends  Mr. 
Fitzpatrick  and  Lord  Ossory.''  Many  particulars  occurred  in  the 
course  of  the  three  hours  :  upon  the  whole,  it  appeared  sufficiently 
practicable  to  obtain  his  assistance,  if  he  could'  be  kept  in  coun- 
tenance by  others.  I  am  convinced  that  he  will  make  no  bad 
use  of  the  conversation,  but  in  other  respects  will  be  as  hostile  as 
ever.  In  talking  about  the  Canada  business,  he  professed  him- 
self much  embarrassed  with  it,  and  showed  me  a  very  long  list  of 
resolutions.  At  a  quarter  past  seven,  I  called  on  Dr.  Priestley, 
who  introduced  Lord  Shelburne  to  me,  and  left  us.  We  sat  to- 
gether till  half-past  ten,  though  he  told  me  at  first  that  he  was 
appointed  at  eight  o'clock  to  attend  an. Opposition  meeting  [at  the 
Duke  of  Richmond's].  I  confided  to  him  my  copy  of  the  French 
Ambassador's  Declaration  (which  I  knew,  however,  that  he  was 
already  in  possession  of).  He  read  it  aloud,  as  a  paper  quite  new 
to  him,  but  commented  on  it  very  frankly,  and  said  that  it  was 
impossible  to  consider  it  otherwise  than  as  a  declaration  of  war ; 
that  we  must  act  accordingly  ;  that  New  York  should  be  strongly 
armed ',  the  frontiers  of  Canada  secured ;  Florida  strengthened ; 
Pennsylvania  evacuated ;  the  fisheries  defended  ;  the  West  India 
Islands  and  all  other  possessions  secured ;  the  proposed  Commission 
desisted  from,  as  now  become  nugatory,  but  all  the  American 
Acts  to  be  repealed ;  measures  of  force  against  France  to  be 
adopted.  In  talking  of  himself,  he  said  that  he  abhorred  in- 
trigue ',  that  his  temper  and  feelings  led  him  to  the  utmost  unre- 
serve and  frankness  ;  that  his  disposition  was  best  suited  to  pri- 
vate life ;   that  he  was  naturally  indolent,  &c.   &c. ;  that  he  ab- 

'  I  cannot  believe  this  account  of  Mr.  Fox's  conversation  to  be  correct. 
It  is  quite  inconsistent  with  Mr.  Fox's  letter  to  Fitzpatrick  of  the  pre- 
vious month.     What  follows  confirms  my  doubts. — J.  R. 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  157 

horred  all  parties;  that,  when  gentlemen  of  Opposition  came  to 
him,  he  always  advised  them  to  prefer  Lord  Rockingham;  that 
when  anything  was  said  to  him  tending  to  a  connection  with  Gov- 
ernment, he  could  say  nothing  but  that  '  Lord  Chatham  must  be 
the  dictator.'  When  I  asked  him  what  Lord  Chatham  would 
dictate,  he  said  that  I  must  have  heard,  both  through  the  Duke 
of  Northumberland  and  through  another  channel ;  that,  when  his 
Majesty  last  parted  with  Lord  Chatham,  his  Majesty  was  pleased 
to  say  he  foresaw  he  should,  on  future  occasions,  want  his  advice 
and  assistance,  and  that  the  occasion  was  now  come.  He  knew, 
he  said,  that  Lord  Chatham  thought  any  change  insufficient  which 
did  not  comprehend  and  annihilate  every  party  in  the  kingdom ; 
that  the  Duke  of  Grafton  and  Lord  Rockingham  must  be  included; 
that  a  great  law  arrangement  would,  in  Lord  Chatham's  opinion, 
be  material ;  and  that  Lord  Mansfield  ought  to  be  removed.  He 
was  liberal  in  solemn  assurances  to  me  that  no  one  syllable  of 
our  conversation  should  ever  transpire ;  was  sorry,  he  said,  to 
collect  nothing  from  me  that  tended  to  produce  a  general  refor- 
mation in  Government.  He  professed  no  disregard  to  Lord  Suf- 
folk and  Lord  North  (possibly  through  politeness),  but  dwelt 
with  some  asperity  on  Lord  Gower's  principles  of  Government 
and  on  Lord  George's  insufficiency  (in  which  he  made  some  allu- 
sions to  General  Carlton).  He  intimated  that  Lord  Chatham 
would  not  wish,  perhaps,  to  give  the  Treasury  to  Lord  Rocking- 
ham, but  would  perhaps  offisr  to  make  him  Lord  Chamberlain. 
It  was  agreed  in  the  close  of  our  conversation  that  we  should  mu- 
tually act  as  if  we  had  never  met,  but  that  I  should  call  again  on 
Tuesday  evening  at  a  quarter  past  eight.  He  criticized  Lord 
Sandwich  for  having  seen  Mr.  Keppel^  yesterday,  without  say- 
ing one  word  to  him  on  the  subject  of  an  immediate  war  with 
France. 

"  March  17.  Tuesday  night,  at  half-past  eight,  I  went  to  Lord 
Shelburne's,  as  by  agreement  of  Sunday  night.  We  met  at  the 
same  moment,  at  his  gate.     The  conversation  began  on  the  de- 

^  Admiral  Keppel. 
VOL.  I. — 14 


158  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  29. 

bate  he  had  just  had  in  the  House  of  Lords,  in  which  he  had 
made  a  speech  by  no  means  unfriendly  to  Government,  though 
personally  harsh  to  Lord  Mansfield.     The  turn  of  his  speech  was 
to  show  the  extent  and  greatness  of  the  affront  offered  by  France, 
and  the  impossibility  of  not  resenting  it.     In  repeating  what  he 
had  said  to  me,  he  added  that  the  present  Ministers  would  be 
bold  to  a  degree  of  desperation,  if,  though  the  war  was  necessary, 
they  ventured  to  conduct  it )  for  that  losses  of  much  importance 
must  be  expected  from  the  measures  which  France  had  undoubt- 
edly taken  against  us,  and  such  losses  so  immediately  on  the 
back  of  other  misfortunes  would  be  too  much  for  any  Govern- 
ment to  stand.     When  I  answered  to  this,  that  every  good  Mi- 
nister, in  a  crisis  like  this,  would  naturally  wish  to  add  any 
strength  to  his  Majesty's  councils  that  could  honorably  be  ob- 
tained, he  replied  that  we  were  precluding  all  new  accessions  by 
giving  the  great  promotions  of  the  army  and  law  to  men  of 
whose  assistance  we  were  already  in  full  possession,  and  that  every 
promotion  among  the  present  set  would  become  an  obstacle  to 
any  new  arrangement.     I  asked  him  what  his  idea  was  of  a  new 
arrangement.     He  answered  that  without  Lord  Chatham  it  would 
be  inefficient,  and  do  more  harm  than  good  to  make  any  change; 
and  that  iDttli  Lord  Chatham  nothing  could  be  done,  but  by  an 
entire  new  Cabinet,  and  a  change  in  the  chief  departments  of  the 
law.     That  this  idea  did  not  go  to  a  total  alteration  of  men  and 
measures,  only  to  an  alteration  of  Ministers,  and  the  giving  force 
and  weight  to  the  measures  which  the  situation  of  the  country 
might  render  necessary  or  expedient.     As  to  the  law,  he  said, 
that  the  great  offices  ought  not  to  be  filled  by  lawyers,  who  were 
mere  mischievous  politicians.     In  answer  to  the  last  sentence,  I 
asked  what  he  meant  to  do  with  his  friends,  Lord  Camden  and 
Mr.  Dunning.     He  did  not  choose  to  understand  what  was  im- 
plied by  this,  but  answered  that  he  wished  to  see  the  one  Chan- 
cellor and  the  other  Chief  Justice,  in  the  room  of  Lord  Mansfield, 
who  he  supposed  m%i8t  wish  to  retire.     I  then  desired  to  know 
how  he  proposed  to  manage  the  House  of  Commons,  without  any 
lawyers  of  eminence,  except  the  present  Attorney  and  Solicitor- 


17T8.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  159 

Generals,  who  would  then  be  both  in  Opposition.  He  allowed 
this  would  be  a  difficulty,  and  said,  'But  surely  there  would  be 
some  mode  of  doing  everything  right,  without  doing  anything 
harsh.'  This  gave  me  the  opening  I  wished,  to  enter  fully  and 
in  the  plainest  language  into  the  narrowness,  nonsense,  and  harsh- 
ness of  the  whole  proposition,  so  far  as  implied  a  wish  and  expec- 
tation in  his  lordship's  friend  at  Hayes,  to  avail  himself  of  the 
pressure  of  a  moment  in  order  to  dictate  terms  to  the  closet,  every 
part  of  which  would  imply  a  desertion  and  disavowal  of  servants 
who  for  many  years  had  fought  the  cause  of  their  master,  of  the 
Parliament,  and  of  the  whole  nation,  with  the  most  cordial  fidelity 
and  zeal;  and  this,  too,  upon  principles  of  the  purest  kind,  the 
truth  of  which  remains  unimpaired,  though  mischances  and  cir- 
cumstances may  make  it  more  difficult  to  enforce  them.  I  added 
that,  though  uninformed  and  unauthorized  as  to  any  specific  reso- 
lutions taken,  I  could  argue  safely  from  the  sentiments  of  honor 
which  I  knew  to  be  firmly  rooted,  and  could  at  once  say  that  no 
arrangement  could  or  would  ever  be  listened  to  one  moment  ex- 
cept on  the  ground  of  mere  accession  of  capacity  and  business,  in 
a  moment  which  would  require  great  exertions,  and  that  even 
such  accessions  could  not  be  taken,  unless  made  in  a  plan  con- 
sistent with  the  honor  of  all  that  had  passed  heretofore.  In  the 
conversation  of  at  least  four  hours  which  followed  this  opening, 
many  particulars  passed,  and  much  detail  was  entered  into  as  to 
persons  and  political  characters.  In  the  result,  his  lordship  seemed 
to  take  a  more  practicable  key,  and  said  he  would  go  this  morning 
to  Hayes,  would  endeavor  to  learn  the  outlines  of  the  expecta- 
tions formed,  and  would  confide  them  to  me  on  his  return,  in  the 
most  secret  confidence,  that  no  bad  use  should  be  made  of  them, 
if  they  were  thought  totally  inadmissible.  I  was  desired  to  meet 
him  again  to-night  at  nine. 

''  March  18,  9  P.  M.  I  found  Lord  Shelburne  to-night  affect- 
edly reserved  and  mysterious  on  all  political  subjects,  and  in  the 
opposite  extreme  as  to  every  point  of  politeness  and  attention. 

'^  He  said  he  had  found  Lord  Chatham  in  good  health  and 
spirits,  and  full  of  speculations  on  the  present  crisis.     That  in 


160  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  29. 

talking  of  Lord  Shelburne's  speech  yesterday,  Lord  Chatham  had 
complimented  him  so  far  as  to  say  he  was  sure  they  would  think 
alike  on  any  subject,  though  in  different  parts  of  the  globe,  and 
out  of  the  reach  of  consultation. 

"  He  added,  en  passant j  that  Lord  Chatham  would  come  to 
town  to-morrow,  in  order  to  hold  the  same  language  in  Parliament 
[for  war  and  against  independency].. 

"  As  to  any  proposal  of  an  arrangement,  he  only  said  that  he ' 
found  it  a  beaten  subject  with  Lord  Chatham,  quite  worn  out. 
He  added  very  significantly,  that  Lord  Chatham  knew  more  than 
I  had  communicated.  I  desired  an  explanation,  to  which  he  only 
answered,  ^  Lord  Chatham  knows  more  than  we  do,  at  least  more 
than  I  did  before  I  saw  him  to-day;  it  is  a  beaten  subject/  I 
asked  if  he  alluded  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  or  the  other 
channel  mentioned  on  Sunday.  He  said,  ^  no ;  more,'  and  then 
proceeded  to  tell  me  that  it  was  not  yet  the  time  for  them  to  serve 
either  the  court  or  the  country,  and  that  he  found  himself  much 
happier  in  a  retired  station.  This  was  followed  with  civil  invita- 
tions to  me  to  meet  him  and  his  friends,  some  of  whom  I  happen 
to  know  intimately  (not  upon  politics),  and  with  advice  to  me  to 
avoid  going  to  America.  I  answered  that  I  would  reserve  private 
subjects  of  conversation  for  quieter  times,  and  asked  if  he  and  his 
friends  meant  in  plain  English  to  be  impracticable;  to  which  he 
replied,  that  Lord  Chatham  was  very  practicable,  but  that  he 
(Lord  S.)  could  not  say  how.  We  had  then  some  loose  disjointed 
conversation,  intimating  on  his  part  that  the  French  would  be 
very  alert  in  their  enterprises,  and  on  mine,  that  we  must  be 
equally  alert  in  our  exertions. 

"The  visit  did  not  last  half  an  hour,  and  I  took  leave  without 
any  further  appointment." 

I  will  now  give  extracts  from  such  parts  of  the  King's  corre- 
spondence with  Lord  North  as  relate  to  these  negotiations, 
beginning  with  a  letter  which  had  no  date,  but  is  evidently  the 
letter  of  the  15th  referred  to  in  the  note  of  the  16th  3Iarch, 

1778:  — 


1778.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  IGl 

"On  a  subject  which  has  for  many  months  engrossed  my 
thoughts,  I  cannot  have  the  smallest  difficulty  instantly  to  answer 
the  letter  I  have  just  received  from  you.  My  sole  wish  is  to  keep 
you  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury,  and  as  my  confidential  Minister. 
That  end  obtained,  I  am  willing  through  your  channel  to  accept 
any  description  of  persons  that  will  come  avowedly  to  the  support 
of  your  Administration,  and  as  such  I  do  not  object  to  Lord  Shel- 
burne  and  Mr.  Barre,  who  personally,  perhaps,  I  dislike  as  much 
as  Alderman  Wilkes,  and  I  cannot  give  you  a  stronger  proof  of 
my  desire  to  forward  your  wishes  than  taking  the  unpleasant 
step."  .  .  .  "But  I  declare  in  the  strongest  and  most  solemn 
manner  that  though  T  do  not  object  to  your  addressing  yourself 
to  Lord  Chatham,  yet  that  you  must  acquaint  him  that  I  shall 
never  address  myself  to  him  but  through  you,  and  on  a  clear  ex- 
planation that  he  is  to  step  forth  to  support  an  Administration 
wherein  you  are  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  that  I  cannot 
consent  to  have  any  conversation  with  him,  till  the  Ministry  is 
formed  ;  that,  if  he  comes  into  this,  I  will,  as  he  supports  you,  re- 
ceive him  with  open  arms.  I  leave  the  whole  arrangement  to  you, 
provided  Lord  Suffolk,  Lord  Weymouth,  and  my  two  able  lawyers 
are  satisfied  as  to  their  situations,  but  choose  Ellis  for  Secretary  at 
War  in  preference  to  Barre,  who  on  that  event  will  get  a  more 
lucrative  employment,  but  will  not  be  so  near  my  person.  Having 
said  this,  I  will  only  add,  to  put  before  your  eyes  my  most  inward 
thoughts,  that  no  advantage  to  this  country,  nor  personal  danger 
to  myself,  can  ever  make  me  address  myself  to  Lord  Chatham,  or 
any  other  branch  of  Opposition.  Honestly,  I  would  rather  lose 
the  crown  I  now  wear  than  bear  the  ignominy  of  possessing  it 
under  their  shackles.  I  might  write  volumes,  if  I  would  state  the 
feelings  of  my  mind,  and  what  I  will  never  depart  from.  Should 
Lord  Chatham  wish  to  see  me  before  he  gives  his  answer,  1  shall 
most  certainly  refuse  it.  I  have  had  enough  of  personal  negotia- 
tions, and  neither  my  dignity  nor  my  feelings  will  ever  let  me  again 
submit  to  it.  ;Men  of  less  principle  and  honesty  than  I  pretend 
to  may  look  on  public  measures  as  a  game.  I  always  act  from 
conviction,  but  I  am  shocked  at  the  base  arts  all  these  men  have 

14* 


162  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  29. 

used;  therefore  cannot  go  towards  them ;  if  they  come  to  your 
assistance,  I  will  accept  them.  You  have  now  full  powers  to  act, 
but  I  do  not  expect  Lord  Chatham  and  his  crew  will  come  to  your 
assistance  ;  but  if  they  do  not,  I  trust  the  rest  of  the  arrangement 
will  greatly  strengthen,  as  it  will  give  efficiency  to  the  Adminis- 
tration. Thurlow  as  Chancellor,  Yorke  as  Secretary  of  State, 
will  be  efficient  men.  Numbers  we  have  already.  Lord  Dart- 
mouth as  Steward,  and  Lord  Weymouth  Privy  Seal,  will  please 
them  both,  I  am  certain.  Lord  W.'s  conduct,  on  your  last  vacancy, 
of  the  seals,  gives  him  a  right  to  this  change,  if  agreeable  to  him.^' 

"  March  IQ,  1778. 

"  You  can  want  no  further  explanation  of  the  language  held  to 
Mr.  Eden  the  last  evening.  It  is  so  totally  contrary  to  the  only 
ground  on  which  I  could  have  accepted  the  services  of  tJiat  per- 
fidious man,^  that  I  need  not  enter  on  it.  Lord  Chatham  as  dic- 
tator— as  planning  a  new  Administration — I  appeal  to  my  letter  of 
yesterday  if  I  did  not  clearly  speak  out  upon.  If  Lord  Chatham 
agrees  to  support  your  Administration,  (if  you  like  better)  the 
fundamentals  of  the  present  Administration,  viz..  Lord  N.  at  the 
head  of  the  Treasury ;  Lords  Suffolk,  Grower,  and  Weymouth,  in 
great  offices  to  their  own  inclinations ;  Lord  Sandwich  at  the  Ad- 
miralty, Thurlow  Chancellor,  and  Wedderburne  as  Chief  Justice, 
I  will  not  object  to  see  that  great  man,  when  Lord  Shelburne, 
Dunning,  and  Barre  are  placed  already  in  office;  but  I  solemnly 
declare  that  nothing  shall  bring  me  to  treat  personally  with  Lord 
Chatham.  If  I  saw  Lord  C.,  he  would  insist  on  as  total  a  change 
as  Lord  Shelburne  yesterday  threw  out. 

''Same  day. 

"  I  am  fully  convinced  that  you  are  actuated  alone  from  a  wish 
not  to  conceal  the  most  private  corners  of  your  breast  in  writing 
the  letter  you  have  just  sent  unto  me  ;  but,  my  dear  Lord,  it  is 
not  private  pique,  but  an  opinion  formed  on  an  experience  of  now 

^  Lord  Chatham. 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  163 

seventeen  years,  that  makes  me  resolve  to  run  any  personal  risk 
rather  than  submit  to  Opposition,  which  every  plan  deviating 
from  strengthening  the  present  Administration  is  more  or  less 
tending  to.  I  am  certain,  while  I  can  have  no  one  object  in  view 
but  to  be  of  use  to  the  country,  it  is  impossible  I  can  be  deserted, 
and  the  road  opened  to  a  set  of  men  who  certainly  would  make  me 
a  slave  for  the  remainder  of  my  days ;  and,  whatever  they  may 
pretend,  would  go  to  the  most  unjustifiable  lengths  of  cruelty  and 
destruction  of  those  who  have  stood  forth  in  public  offices,  of  which 
you  would  be  the  first  victim." 

"  March  17,  1778. 

"  I  am  grieved  at  your  continually  recurring  to  a  subject  on 
which  we  can  never  agree.  Your  letter  is  certainly  personally 
affectionate  to  me,  and  shows  no  sign  of  personal  fear;  but,  my 
dear  Lord,  no  consideration  in  life  shall  make  me  stoop  to  Oppo- 
sition. I  am  still  ready  to  accept  any  part  of  them  that  will 
come  to  the  assistance  of  my  present  efficient  Ministers;  but 
whilst  any  ten  men  in  the  kingdom  will  stand  by  me,  I  will  not 
give  myself  up  to  bondage.  My  dear  Lord,  I  will  rather  risk  my 
crown  than  do  what  I  think  personally  disgraceful.  It  is  impos- 
sible this  nation  should  not  stand  by  me.  If  they  will  not, 
they  shall  have  another  King,  for  I  never  will  put  my  hand  to 
what  will  make  me  miserable  to  the  last  hour  of  my  life.  There- 
fore, let  Thurlow  instantly  know  that  I  will  appoint  him  Chan- 
cellor ;  and  the  Solicitor-General,  that  if  he  does  not  choose  to  be 
Attorney-General,  we  will  treat  with  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Common  Pleas  to  resign." 

"J/arcA  18,  1778. 

"  I  am  highly  incensed  at  the  language  held  by  Lord  Shel- 
burne  last  night  to  Eden,  and  approve  of  that  of  the  latter.  I 
am  fairly  worn  down.  But  all  proposals  and  answers  must  in 
future  go  through  you,  for  I  will  not  change  the  Administration ; 
but  if  I  can  with  honor,  let  you  make  the  acquisitions." 


164  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  29. 

1 

"  3Iarch  18,  1778. 

^^  Convey  to  Thurlow  and  Wedderburne  my  intentions.  Then, 
and  not  till  then,  I  am  open  to  the  plan  of  Ministry  proposed  by 
you  on  Sunday.  I  never  will  accept  the  service  of  any  part  of 
Opposition  but  to  strengthen  i/ou.  To  give  i/ou  ease,  I  consent 
to  what  gives  me  infinite  pain,  but  any  further,  even  that  considera- 
tion would  not  make  me  go.  Rather  than  be  shackled  by  those 
desperate  men  (if  the  nation  will  not  stand  by  me),  I  will  rather 
see  any  form  of  government  introduced  into  this  island,  and  lose 
my  Crown  rather  than  wear  it  as  a  disgrace." 

*<  22d  3Iarch,  half -past  eight,  A.  31. 

"  I  can  scarcely  express  my  disappointment  at  finding  that  all 
the  uneasiness  and  labor  I  have  undergone  for  the  whole  week  has 
not  convinced  you  that,  though  you  are  unhappily  too  difiident  of 
your  own  abilities,  yet  that  you  ought  also  to  consider  that  you 
have  changed  your  ground  since  Sunday.  I  will  never  consent  to 
removing  the  members  of  the  present  Cabinet  from  my  service.  I 
am  extremely  indifi"erent  whether  Lord  Granby  goes  or  does  not 
go  with  the  abject  message  of  the  Rockingham  party  to  Hayes. 
I  will  certainly  send  none  to  that  place." 

"  My  dear  Lord — Your  always  recurring  to  a  total  change  of 
Administration  obliges  me  to  ask  you  one  clear  question.  If  I 
will  not  by  your  advice  take  the  step  which  I  look  on  as  disgrace- 
ful to  myself,  and  destruction  to  my  family,  are  you  resolved, 
agreeable  to  the  example  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton  at  the  hour  of 
danger,  to  desert  me?" 

''3farch2S,  1778. 

''  I  cannot  return  the  message  without  expressing  my  satisfac- 
tion at  your  determination  not  to  desert  at  this  hour,  which  indeed 
I  always  thought  your  sense  of  honor  would  prevent." 


1778.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  165 

"  March  29,  1778. 

''  Your  constant  recurrence  to  a  measure  I  think  destructive — 
your  avowed  despondency,  which  is  highly  detrimental  to  my 
service,  obliges  me  to  the  three  following  questions:  1.  Do  you 
think  it  possible  to  strengthen  the  present  Administration  by  an 
accession  of  some  men  of  talents  from  the  Opposition  ?  2.  If 
that  cannot  be  effected,  will  you  consent  to  continue  and  try  to 
exert  yourself  and  co-operate  with  me  in  putting  vigor  and  activity 
to  every  department  ?  3.  If  you  decline  continuing,  you  cannot, 
I  suppose,  refuse  residing  at  the  Treasury  and  finishing  the  busi- 
ness of  this  session,  and  not  be  surprised  at  my  taking  such  steps 
as  I  think  necessary  for  strengthening  my  Administration,  the 
first  of  which  will  be  my  giving  the  Great  Seal  to  the  Attorney- 
aenerar'  [Thurlow]. 

"  March  30,  1778. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  perceive  that,  by  declining  the  first  two  ques- 
tions, you  have  adopted  the  third.  It  would  be  useless  to  describe 
the  pain  I  feel  at  the  prospect  of  losing  you.  Send  to  Mr.  Thur- 
low, and  inform  him  that  I  intend  the  Great  Seal  and  a  peerage 
for  him ;  and  as  I  wish  to  do  everything  for  your  ease,  not  detri- 
mental to  my  service,  I  authorize  you  to  persuade  Mr.  Wedder- 
burne  not  to  quit  the  House  of  Commons  till  the  end  of  the  ses- 
sion. Tell  him  it  will  be  a  conduct  I  shall  never  forget,  and  one 
of  your  last  acts  shall  be  to  complete  the  arrangement  with  the 
Chief  Justice  that  he  may  preside  at  the  Common  Pleas.^^ 

"J/arc/i  31. 

^'  Pleased  at  Lord  North's  consent  to  remain  after  the  session  as 
long  as  was  necessary  for  arrangements." 

"Aprill,  1788. 

"The  letter  I  have  just  received  from  you  is  in  the  affectionate 
style  I  used  to  find  ever  to  be  called  forth  in  you  when  my  service 


166  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  29. 

was  concerned,  and  so  very  unlike  tlie  coldness  and  despondency 
of  your  correspondence  for  some  time  that  I  cannot  refrain  from 
the  pleasure  of  expressing  satisfaction  at  it/' 

The  substance  as  well  as  temper  of  the  preceding  letters  shows 
that  Lord  North  was  continually  pressing  the  King  to  change  his 
measures,  and  to  admit  either  a  portion  or  the  whole  of  the  party 
opposed  to  the  American  war — a  fact  from  which  the  biographer 
of  Mr.  Fox  will  not  fail  to  infer  that,  in  the  subsequent  coalition 
of  1783,  there  was  no  dereliction  of  principle  on  either  side,  and 
that  the  inconsistency  of  the  parties  was  more  apparent  than  real. 
— V.  H.^ 

On  the  7th  of  April  happened  the  memorable  seizure  of  Lord 
Chatham  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  immediate  precursor  of  his 
death. 

On  the  8th  of  April,  the  King  writes  to  Lord  North:  "May 
not  the  political  exit  of  Lord  Chatham  incline  you  to  continue  at 
the  head  of  my  affairs?"  In  this  hope  also  he  was  disappointed, 
for  in  ten  days  afterwards  he  says  :  "  As  your  letter  plainly  shows 
that  you  at  all  events  expect  to  be  released  from  your  situation  at 
the  end  of  this  session,  and  that  you  cannot  extricate  yourself  for 
even  that  small  period,  if  the  law  arrangements  you  yourself  pro- 
posed to  me  take  place,  I  think  it  best,  on  the  whole,  to  make  no 
arrangement  this  recess,  and  you  are  therefore  dispensed  from 
taking  any  steps  concerning  the  present  Attorney  and  Solicitor- 
Generals,  or  any  successor  to  them."  Other  letters  follow,  with 
more  or  less  urgency  on  the  part  of  the  King,  and  more  or  less 
hesitation  on  the  part  of  Lord  North.  On  the  12th  of  May,  the 
King  writes  to  him :  ^'  As  the  fresh  touching  on  the  wish  to 
retire  convinces  me  of  Lord  North's  intention  at  all  events  to 
resign,  I  can  only  add  that,  as  soon  as  he  has  arranged  the  day  of 
Mr.  Thurlow's  receiving  the  Great  Seal,  I  will,  when  I  have  that 

^  I  cannot  assent  to  this  remark  of  Lord  Holland.  Lord  North  actually 
carried  on  the  American  War :  it  will  hardly  add  to  his  reputation  to 
show  that  he  involved  the  Old  and  the  New  World  in  useless  bloodshed 
against  his  own  opinion. — J.  R. 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  167 

office  in  such  respectable  hands,  not  lose  an  hour  in  consulting 
with  the  new  Chancellor,  and  with  some  of  my  principal  Minis- 
ters now  in  the  Cabinet,  how  least  to  the  detriment  of  the  public 
service  to  supply  what  I  must  ever  look  on  as  a  great  loss.  Lord 
North  will  by  this  perceive,  the  sooner  he  can  notify  that  the 
road  is  clear  for  my  nominating  a  Chancellor,  the  sooner  he  will 
be  freed  from  his  present  uneasy  situation. '^  Five  days  afterwards 
he  says :  "  Why  is  that  appointment  of  Mr,  Thurlow  not  con- 
cluded ?  You  want  to  retire,  yet  will  not  take  the  first  step  to 
enable  me  to  acquiesce  in  your  request.'' 

[On  the  1st  of  June,  Thurlow  was  raised  to  the  peerage  and 
made  Lord  Chancellor,  and  two  days  afterwards  Parliament  was 
prorogued.  Lord  North  seems  to  have  lost  no  time  in  renewing 
his  application  for  leave  to  retire,  for  on  the  16th  the  King  writes 
to  him :]  "  Lord  North's  application  to  resign  within  two  days 
after  the  prorogation,  I  can  see  in  no  other  light  than  a  continua- 
tion of  his  resolution  to  retire  whenever  my  affairs  will  permit  it. 
For  I  never  can  think  that  he,  who  so  handsomely  stood  forward 
on  the  desertion  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  would  lose  all  that  merit 
by  following  so  undignified  an  example." 

I  now  return  to  Horace  Walpole's  summary  of  the  debates. 

April  10,  1778.  *^  On  a  motion  of  Powys,  the  Scotch  Advo- 
cate [Dundas]  again  spoke  most  intemperately  for  pursuing  the 
attempt  of  conquering  America,  and  was  well  answered  by  Burke 
and  Fox." — n.  w. 

May  7.  The  King's  message,  and  Lord  North's  motion  for 
the  grant  of  a  million.  "  T.  Townshend,  Charles  Fox,  and  Mr. 
Burke  attacked  the  Ministers  with  great  warmth  on  their  receiv- 
ing an  account  of  the  sailing  of  the  Toulon  fleet  on  the  Monday, 
and  not  calling  a  Council  even  to  give  orders  till  the  Wednesday. 
Mr.  Fox  even  hinted  having  heard  that  Lord  G.  Germaine  was  so 
dissatisfied  with  the  other  Ministers  that  he  had  threatened  to 
resign.  Lord  George  did  not  positively  deny  this,  and,  though  in 
a  soft  way  he  pleaded  that  Ministers  had  been  out  of  town,  his 
gestures,  while  Fox  was  speaking,  seemed  to  agree  to  all  he  said.'^ 

May  21.     "  Burgoyne  appeared  in  House  of  Commons,  and  in 


168  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  29. 

reply  to  a  question  of  Mr.  Yyner,  said,  '  he  was  ready  to  answer 
anything,,  and  should  declare  some  things  that  would  astonish 
everybody.'  He  had  intended  to  have  Charles  Fox  question  him 
in  order  to  bring  out  what  he  wished,  a  step  that  both  showed  he 
thought  himself,  and  made  him  desperate  with  Ministers.'' 

May  26.  On  question,  whether  Burgoyne,  being  a  prisoner, 
could  be  interrogated  or  examined,  Charles  Fox,  in  answer  to 
Lord  Gr.  Grermaine,  "  wondered  there  could  be  any  doubt  of  try- 
ing the  General,  when  the  Minister,  Lord  George,  had  been  tried, 
and  his  conduct  had  appeared  so  unsatisfactory  that  the  Commit- 
tee had  made  no  report  to  the  House;  and  he  moved  to  extend 
the  inquiry  to  the  whole  measure  of  the  Expedition." 

May  28.  "  Wedderburne  objected  to  Burgoyne's  sitting  in 
Parliament  while  a  prisoner,  but  gave  most  absurd  reasons.  Fox 
made  a  very  masterly^  and  severe  speech  against  Lord  North ; 
but  the  motion  to  address  the  Crown,  not  to  prorogue,  was  lost 
by  105  to  53." 

June  2.  Sir  James  Lowther  moved  to  renew  the  motion 
against  prorogation.  '^  This  was  objected  to  by  the  Court,  when 
Kichard  Fitzpatrick,  brother  of  Lord  Ossory,  and  a  great  friend 
of  Charles  Fox,  having  arrived  the  day  before  from  America,  rose 
and  gave  a  strong  account  of  the  extreme  dissatisfaction  the  con- 
ciliatory plan  had  occasioned  in  the  army  and  contempt  in  the 
Americans.  He  complained  that  the  army  had  been  promised 
20,000  recruits,  and  had  been  deceived;  commended  General 
Howe,  and  complained  bitterly  how  ill  that  General,  Burgoyne, 
and  Carleton  had  been  treated  by  the  Administration." 

June  3.     "  Session  ended." 

*  This  session  of  Parliament  was  rendered  forever  memorable 
by  the  death  of  Lord  Chatham.  Factious  in  the  commencement 
of  his  career,  and  impracticable  at  the  close,  he  was  yet  a  great 
man,  and  the  only  great  man  of  England  during  his  period.  His 
flashes  of  eloquence  scattered  his  opponents;  and  his  war  measures 
swept  the  enemies  of  his  country  before  them.     He  loved  and 

^  It  was  one  of  liis  best  speeches,  full  of  sense  and  matter. — H.  W. 


1778.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  169 

venerated  liberty;  was  free  from  all  personal  corruption,  and,  with 
a  sagacity  and  boldness  seldom  equalled,  raised  the  glory  and 
greatness  of  his  country.* — J.  R. 

Mr.  Fox,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  of  the  11th  of  November, 
1778,  consults  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  about  the  course  they  ought  to 
take  in  the  ensuing  session  of  Parliament.     "I  am  afraid,''  he 
says,  "that  Keppel  and  Palliser   will  engross  so  much  of   the 
public  attention,  and  that  of  some  of  our  friends  especially,  that 
many  more  important  things  may  be  neglected.     I  think  our  line 
of  conduct  more  nice  and  difl&cult  than  ever,  considering  all  things. 
I  am  always  inclined  to  think  the  straight  line  the  best ;  but  yet 
to  contrive  so  as  to  set  against  us  that  very  great  number  of  peo- 
ple, who  think  as  ill  of  Ministry  as  we  do,  and  yet  are  not  ripe  for 
such  a  conduct  as  you  and  I  may  think  right,  would  surely  be 
imprudent.     If  the  acknowledgment  of  independence  would  not 
procure  peace,  it  is  certainly  useless.     I  own   my  present  idea 
(considering  all  things  as  well  at  home  as  abroad)  is  rather  with 
Lord  Shelburne  for  being  silent  on  that  subject,  but  acting  as  if 
it  were  acknowledged,  withdrawing  our  troops  from  North  America, 
and  making  the  most  vigorous  attacks  upon  France,  or  possibly 
Spain  too.     Whatever  may  be  the  conditions  of  alliance  between 
the  States  and  France,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  they  would 
act  very  lukewarmly  against   us,  when    they  found   themselves 
wholly  uninterested  in  the  war  and  engaged  merely  by  a  point  of 
honor.     That  all  this  would  be  much  surer  of  producing  the  eflfect 
proposed,  if  the  independence  were  acknowledged,  I  see  very  clearly; 
but  we  must  consider  a  little  the  state  of  things  at  home,  and 
think  what  is  practicable  as  well   as  what  is  best.     This  is  at 
present  my  opinion,  but  it  is  very  liable  to  be  altered  by  a  thou- 
sand circumstances,  of  which  it  is  impossible  for  me  now  to  judge, 
and  therefore  I  need  not  say  that  it  is  an  opinion  I  could  by  no 
means  wish  to  have  known.     Pray  let  me  know  what  you  think 
of  the  matter.     With  respect  to  Lord  Bute,  &c.,  I  have  no  opin- 
ion at  all.     As  to  Mr.  Pitt's  letter,  I  think  it  (as  you  do)  very 
good,  but  have  no  doubt  at  all  of  its  being  his  own,  from  what 
little  I  have  seen  of  him.     What  you  say  of  Sandwich  surprises 
VOL.  I. — 15 


170  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  29. 

me,  for  my  notion  was  that  he  was  extraordinarily  well  at  Court." 
[It  is  a  curious  coincidence  of  opinion,  that  it  was  the  first  impres- 
sion of  the  King,  on  intelligence  of  a  probable  rupture  with  France, 
that  we  should]  "  withdraw  the  greatest  part  of  our  troops  from 
America,  and  employ  them  against  the  French  and  Spanish  settle- 
ments. If  we  are  to  be  carrying  on  a  land  war  against  the  rebels 
and  against  these  two  powers,  it  must  be  feeble  in  all  its  parts,  and 
consequently  unsuccessful."  [How  this  sensible  opinion  came  to  be 
abandoned  does  not  appear  in  the  correspondence  of  the  King  with 
Lord  North.  The  decision  was  probably  postponed  till  the  success  of 
the  Commissioners,  who  had  been  sent  with  propositions  to  the  colo- 
nists, was  known.  The  mission  was  unsuccessful,  and  the  attempt 
of  Johnstone,  one  of  the  Commissioners,  to  open  a  clandestine  nego- 
tiation with  some  of  his  private  friends  in  the  service  of  the  States, 
provoked  violent  and  mutual  animosity.  Full  of  resentment 
against  Congress,  Johnstone  came  back,  with  sanguine  reports  of 
the  distressed  state  of  the  American  army,  of  the  general  dissatis- 
faction with  Congress,  and  of  the  disposition  of  a  great  part  of  the 
people  to  be  reconciled  to  the  mother  country.  He  was  most 
graciously  received  at  Court,  and  much  caressed  by  Ministers.]] 
"I  fancy,"  says  Fitzpatrick  to  his  brother  (November,  1778), 
"  his  advice  has  determined  them  to  continue  the  war.  This  is 
talked  of  as  an  act  of  necessity,  and  asserted  that  America  would 
not  make  peace  without  France,  having  entered  into  a  treaty  ofien- 
sive  and  defensive  with  her."  [Johnstone,  on  his  arrival,  had 
written  to  Mr.  Fox,  with  whom  he  had  been  on  terms  of  intimacy :] 
"I  have  had  a  letter  from  Johnstone,"  says  Mr.  Fox,  in  his  letter 
to  Fitzpatrick  of  the  11th  of  November,  "which  tallies  exactly 
with  the  account  you  gave  of  his  conversation.  Whether  upon 
the  whole  he  will  do  good  or  mischief,  I  am  not  able  to  judge, 
but  I  cannot  help  retaining  the  good  opinion  I  used  to  have  of 
him.  I  think  him  very  absurd  in  some  of  his  ideas,  but  I  think 
his  absurdities  such  as  arise  from  his  situation." 

*The  events  of  the  years  1777  and  1778  ought  to  have  put  an 
end  to  the  American  war.  A  British  army  had  surrendered. 
Three  millions  of  people  at  a  distance  of  ten  weeks'  voyage,  in 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  171 

possession  of  a  great  continent^  had  declared  their  independence. 
France,  our  powerful  neighbor,  had  not  only  acknowledged  that 
independence,  but  had  concluded  a  treaty  of  peace  and  amity  with 
the  United  States  of  America.  Lord  Chatham,  who  still  clung 
finally  to  the  connection,  had  fallen  in  the  field  of  his  glory.  To 
men  of  expediency,  like  Lord  North  and  his  colleagues,  such 
events  would  seem  to  leave  but  one  course  open.  There  was  no 
longer  anything  to  be  gained  by  our  arms  in  America,  if  her  in- 
dependence was  to  be  acknowledged ;  a  simple  cessation  of  arms 
must  have  speedily  led  to  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  new  state. 
The  Opposition,  which  had  caught  eagerly  at  the  first  overtures 
of  Lord  North,  would  have  been  silenced  by  the  complete  fulfil- 
ment of  their  declared  policy.* — J.  R. 

November  26,  Parliament  met.  "  Charles  Fox  condemned  the 
Address  in  one  of  his  very  best  orations.  He  said  it  was  false, 
for  it  called  the  powers  of  the  Commissioners  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, though  Parliament  had  never  seen  the  commission.  Lord 
North  answered  Charles  Fox  but  very  poorly,  and  in  every  debate 
before  Christmas  was  allowed  to  have  shown  no  abilities,  whether 
his  indolence  or  his  dissatisfaction  increased." 

^'  On  the  report,  Charles  Fox,  a  warm  friend  of  General  Bur- 
goyne's,  had  intended  to  fall  heavily  on  Lord  Gr.  Germaine,  who 
happening  not  to  come  to  the  House,  Fox  turned  his  artillery 
against  Lord  North,  and  uttered  one  of  the  most  severe  philip- 
pics ever  pronounced  on  his  accumulation  of  places,  heaped  on 
him  in  proportion  to  his  miscarriages.'' 

December  4.  On  Mr.  Coke's  motion  upon  Sir  Henry  Clinton's 
proclamation — "  I  think  it  was  in  this  debate  that  Lord  G.  Ger- 
maine asserted  that  the  King  was  his  own  Minister,  which  Charles 
Fox  took  up  admirably,  lamenting  that  his  Majesty  was  his  oicn 
unadvised  Minister." 

December  12.  On  Temple  Lutterell's  motion  for  a  court- 
martial  on  Pattison,  after  Keppel  had  spoken  and  retired, 
"  Charles  Fox,  as  his  relation  and  friend,  said  Admiral  Keppel 
would  scorn  recrimination,  and  therefore,  lest  it  should  have  that 


172  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  29. 

look,  he  would  move  for  the  order  of  the  day  to  supersede  it. 
The  order  of  the  day  was  called  for,  and  the  molion  dropped." 

"  Lord  Beauchamp  (afterwards  Marquis  of  Hertford),  a  Lord 
of  the  Treasury,  had  told  me  that  he  had  thoughts  of  moving  to 
take  off  double  taxes  from  Koman  Catholics.  In  that  respect  the 
Opposition  was  as  forward  as  the  Court.  Charles  Fox,  on  the 
report  of  the  land-tax,  before  Christmas,  had  moved  for  that  re- 
peal, but  was  told  that  he  was  too  late,  as  the  bill  for  the  land- 
tax  was  too  far  advanced,  and  that  he  must  wait  till  another 
year.'' 

Mr.  Fox's  liberality  to  Catholics  at  this  period,  whether  origi- 
nally suggested  by  Burke,  or  by  his  own  sense  of  justice  and  be- 
nevolence, is  most  remarkable.  Walpole,  who  records  it,  mani- 
festly disapproves,  and  with  the  exception  of  Burke  and  Sir  G. 
Savile,  there  were  few  of  the  friends  of  liberty  at  that  time  who 
could  distinguish  between  absolute  liberty  for  religious  opinions, 
and  an  approbation  of  those  so  tolerated. — v.  H. 

MR.  FITZPATRICK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"  Saturday,  [^December  12,  1778.] 

"  Dear  Brother  : — 

"  I  am  very  sorry,  as  you  will  be,  that  you  did  not  come  to 
town,  for  we  had  yesterday  the  most  interesting  debate  I  ever  re- 
member to  have  heard.  You  will  see  accounts  of  it  in  the  news- 
papers. The  House  was  violently  disposed  to  Keppel,  who  spoke 
like  a  man  inspired,  and  no  tool  was  bold  enough  to  venture  one 
word  in  favor  of  Palliser.  The  Admiralty  have  certainly  taken 
a  step  that  is  not  defensible,  and  it  can  hardly  be  believed  that 
Lord  Sandwich  would  have  been  so  hasty  to  order  a  court-martial 
if  he  had  not  wished  ill  to  Keppel.  I  saw  the  Duchess  at  the 
opera  to-night,  and  she  sees  the  thing  in  the  proper  light.  I 
asked  her  if  she  had  seen  Sandwich,  and  she  said  he  had  not  been 
there  yet  this  year.  The  court-martial  is  ordered  for  the  7th  of 
January.  What  Opposition  will  do  on  this  subject  is  not  yet 
decided,  but  I  think  we  must  have  a  strong  question  against  the 


1778.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  173 

Admiralty.  I  think  last  night  we  should  have  carried  any  ques- 
tion. Palliser's  conduct  is,  to  be  sure,  the  most  atrocious  that 
ever  was  heard  of.     The  post  is  waiting,  so  adieu. 

''R.  F." 

[The  negotiations  described  in  the  preceding  letters  not  having 
come  to  a  successful  termination,  Lord  North,  amidst  expressions 
of  attachment  to  the  King,  appears  to  have  reiterated  his  former 
applications  for  leave  to  resign ;  for  on  the  10th  of  November, 
1778,  the   King   writes  to  him]  : — "On  coming  home,  I  found 
Lord  North's  box,  containing  sentiments  of  aflfection  to  my  person, 
although  in  other  respects  not  very  agreeable  to  my  wishes.     You 
cannot  be  surprised  that,  surrounded  with  difficulties,  and  an  op- 
position to  Government,  formed  of  men  that,  if  they  could  suc- 
ceed, would  restrain  no  one  of  the  absurdities  they  have  sported, 
I  think  the  duty,  nay,  personal  honor,  of  those  in  public  station 
must  prompt  them   to  make  every  effort  to  assist  me  who  have 
unreservedly  supported  them."     [The  nature  and  degree  of  sup- 
port expected  by  his  Majesty  appear  from  a  subsequent  letter 
(November  14),  in  which  he  says]  :  "  If  the  Ministers,  in  their 
speeches,  show  that  they  will  never  consent  to  the  independence 
of  America,  and  that  the  assistance  of  every  man  will  be  accepted 
on  that  ground,  I  am  certain  the  cry  will  be  strong  in  their  fa vor.^' 
[In  the  same  letter  he  complains  of  Lord  North  saying  that  he 
had  not  the  requisite  authoriti/  for  the  conduct  of  affairs  at  this 
time.]     "  The  word  authority  puzzles  me ;  for,  from  the  hour  of 
Lord  North's  so  handsomely  devoting  himself,  on  the  retreat  of 
the  Duke  of  Grafton,  I  have  never  had  a  political  thought  which 
I  have  not  communicated  unto  him,  have  accepted  of  persons 
highly  disagreeable  to  me,  because  he  thought  they  would  be  of 
advantage  to  his  conducting  public  affairs,  and  have  yielded  to 
measures  my  own  opinion  did  not  quite  approve.     Therefore,  I 
must  desire  to  have  an  explanation  in  writing  on  what  is  meant 
by  that  word/' 

15* 


l'^4  CORKESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  30. 


1779. 

The  year  commenced  with  Lord  KeppeFs  trial,  at  Portsmouth. 
Lord  Rockingham  and  many  of  his  party  took  lodgings  in  the 
town  during  the  trial. 

''  Charles  Fox,  being  told  by  one  of  the  Cavendishes,  who  had 
been  at  Portsmouth,  that  their  friends  there  were  finely  warm, 
replied:  '  Then  I  will  go  there  to  see  what  their  warmth  is,  for  I 
have  never  seen  any  in  them.' " h.  w. 

At  this  time  fresh  negotiations  seem  to  have  been  set  on  foot. 
On  this  subject  I  find,  in  the  Hockingham  correspondence,  the 
following  letter : — 

HON.  CHARLES  JAMES  FOX  TO  THE  MARQUIS  OF 

ROCKINGHAM. 


u 


''January  24,  1779. 
My  dear  Lord  : — 


"  It  would  be  needless  in  me  to  remind  you  of  the  many  con- 
versations that  have  passed  between  us  last  summer  and  the 
beginning  of  the  winter,  upon  the  subject  of  a  proposition  which 
I  was  desired  to  make  to  you  and  others. 

"  You  know  how  widely  we  difi"ered  in  opinion  upon  that  mat- 
ter; and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  it  happened  upon  this  occasion, 
as  upon  such  occasions  is  too  usual,  that  the  more  we  discussed 
the  subject,  and  the  more  we  disputed  upon  it,  the  more  we  be- 
came attached  to  our  original  opinions.  What  you  considered  as 
a  step  of  the  most  dangerous  tendency  to  the  Whig  party,  I 
looked  upon  as  a  most  favorable  opportunity  for  restoring  it'  to 
that  power  and  influence  which  I  wish  it  to  have  as  earnestly  as 
you  can  do.  The  very  circumstances  which  you  thought  likely  to 
render  the  proposed  arrangement  weak,  I  considered  as  means  of 
strength  and  stability ;  because  it  has  always  been,  and  I  believe 
always  will  be,  my  opinion  that  power  (whether  over  a  people  or 
a  king)  obtained  by  gentle  means,  by  the  good-will  of  the  person 
to  be  governed,  and,  above  all,  by  degrees,  rather  than  by  a  sud- 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  175 

den  exertion  of  strength,  is  in  its  nature  more  durable  and  firm, 
than  any  advantage  that  can  be  obtained  by  contrary  means.  I 
do  not  say  all  this  in  hopes  of  convincing  you,  but  only  in  my 
own  justification  for  entertaining  sentiments  so  opposite  to  those 
of  the  person  in  the  world  I  most  respect.  In  short,  our  dif- 
ference of  opinion  is  quite  complete.  You  think  you  can  best 
serve  the  country  by  continuing  in  a  fruitless  opposition ;  I  think 
it  impossible  to  serve  it  at  all  but  by  coming  into  power ;  and  go 
even  so  far  as  to  think  it  irreconcilable  with  the  duty  of  a  public 
man  to  refuse  it,  if  offered  to  him  in  a  manner  consistent  with 
his  private  honor,  and  so  as  to  enable  him  to  form  fair  hopes  of 
doing  essential  service.  I  know  there  are  some  people,  and  per- 
haps you  may  be  one,  who  will  say  that  these  opinions  are  the 
consequences  of  my  particular  situation,  or  at  best  that  I  am 
warped  towards  them  by  that  situation.  All  I  can  say  is  that  I 
have  done  all  I  could  do  to  examine  my  heart  on  that  question, 
and  do  not  feel  myself  at  all  doubtful  upon  it.  That  I  have  the 
most  extreme  eagerness  for  your  friends  coming  into  office  is  true, 
because  I  think  their  coming  in  essentially  necessary  to  the  making 
the  best  possible  system,  and  because  I  am  convinced  that  if  this 
opportunity  be  missed  another  will  not  offer;  but  that  I  am  not 
myself  personally  over-eager  to  accept  office,  I  believe  I  could 
easily  enough  prove,  if  I  were  so  inclined.  But  I  do  beg  of  you, 
my  dear  Lord,  to  consider  how  very  impracticable  it  is  either  for 
me,  or  for  many  other  parts  of  the  Opposition,  to  go  on  together 
upon  the  ideas  upon  which  you  maintain  your  refusal.  For  is  it, 
or  is  it  not,  a  fair  and  open  declaration  that  you  will  never  have 
anything  to  do  with  any  Ministry  that  is  not  entirely  of  your  own 
framing?  and  do  you  not,  in  some  instances,  rest  your  refusal  upon 
grounds  to  which  we  are  so  far  from  pledged,  that  we  are  in  some 
instances  pledged  directly  on  the  contrary  side?  I  do  not  mention 
this  as  a  matter  of  reproach,  but  only  to  show  you  how  very  impos- 
sible it  is  for  anybody,  who  is  not  one  of  you,  to  enter  into  your 
ideas  and  objects  of  opposition.  I  dare  say  you  do  not  think  me 
weak  enough  to  think  it  possible  for  me  to  shake,  by  any  arguments  I 
can  bring,  systems  long  since  adopted,  and  in  which  you  are  con- 


176  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  30. 

firmed  by  the  concurrent  opinions  of  persons  who  have,  or  ought  to 
have,  ten  thousand  times  more  weight  with  you  than  I  can  pretend 
to.  All  that  I  desire  is  that  you  will  give  me  explicit  answers  to  two 
questions ;  and  this  I  think  I  have  a  right  to,  from  the  very  open  con- 
duct I  have  always  held  towards  you.   The  first  of  these  questions  is, 
Whether  you  persist  in  the  opinion  you  had  of  rejecting,  if  again 
proposed,  the  ofier  formerly  made?  By  rejecting,  Imean  rejecting  in 
the  manner  in  which  you  then  rejected  it ;  because,  if  you  thought  it 
upon  the  whole  a  tolerable  basis  for  an  arrangement,  you  would  state 
particular  difl&culties  and  objections,  which  might  be  discussed,  and 
possibly  removed.  If  you  should  persist  in  rejecting  all  ofiers  of  this 
sort,  my  next  question  is.  Supposing  an  Administration  should  be 
formed  partly  of  those  who  now  act  in  opposition,  and  partly  of 
the  present  people  (always  understanding  the  most  exceptionable 
to   be   removed,  particularly  North,  Sandwich,  and  G-ermaine), 
whether  you  would  give  such  a  Ministry  any  countenance  what- 
ever ?     By   countenance,  I  mean  whether  any  of  your  friends 
would  take  employments  with  such  a  Ministry,  if  they  were  such 
as  were  suitable   to  them  in  other  respects,  and  the  men  with 
whom  they  had  to  act,  such  as  they  could  have  no  other  objection 
to  than  that  of  coming  in  contrary  to  your  opinion  ?     Perhaps  I 
presume  too  much  upon  the  confidence  in  which  we  have  lived 
for  some  time  past,  in  asking  this  second  question,  which  may  be 
thought  to  be  rather  of  a  delicate  nature.     All  I  can  say  is  that 
I  will  give  you  my  word  of  honor  not  to  make  any  rash  or  im- 
proper use  of  any  answer  you  may  make  me.     If  you  decline 
answering  it,  I  shall  not  complain,  but  it  is  a  necessary  one  for  me 
to  ask.     I  am  afraid  I  have  been  very  tiresome  to  you  upon  this 
subject,  but  I  could  not  answer  to  myself  the  not  putting  to  you 
two  questions,  the  answers  to  which  I  think  very  essential  in  re- 
gulating my  future  conduct.     If  you  can  send  your  answer  by 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  who  will  give  you  this,  I  shall  be  obliged  to 
you,  though  there  is  nothing  that  presses  very  much,  for  I  assure 
you  the  hypothesis  is  merely  a  hypothesis;  but  the  sooner  I  can 
have  your  answer,  the  more  I  shall  be  obliged  to  you.     I  will 
trouble  you  no  more  upon  this  subject;  but,  surely,  if  ever  there 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  177 

was  a  crisis  where  a  country  demanded  all  the  efforts  of  its  best 
men,  it  is  the  present ;  and  surely  some  blame  must  lie  at  the 
doors  of  those  who,  from  mistrust  or  suspicion,  deprive  it  of  the 
best  assistance  it  can  have. 

"  Pray  make  my  kindest  compliments  to  Admiral  Keppel  and 
the  Duke  of  Pdchmond.  We  look  upon  the  court-martial  to  be 
the  same  as  over,  and  heartily  wish  it  was  literally  so,  &c.  &c. 

"  C.  J.  FOX." 

On  the  29th  of  January  the  King  writes  to  Lord  North:  "I 
perceive,  as  I  expected,  that  Opposition,  when  they  talk  of  condi- 
tions, mean  to  dictate.     I  thank  God,  whatever  difficulties  may 
surround  me,  I  am  not  made  of  materials  to  stoop  to  that.^'     [On 
the  1st  of  February,  he  seems  to  have  prevailed  on  Lord  North 
to  remain  at  the  Treasury.]     "  I  rejoice,"  says  he,  "  that  you'll 
do  what  I  think  best.   I  do  not  wish  any  change  at  the  Treasury ; 
but,  that  I  may  not  appear  too  obstinate,  I  do  not  object,  if  Lord 
North  thinks  the  language  held  by  the  Duke  of  Grafton  to  Mr. 
Chamick  worthy  of  consideration,  to  empower  Lord  Weymouth 
to  see  what  can  be  engrafted  on  it."     [This  negotiation  soon  came 
to  an  end,  for  on  the  4th  he  writes  again :]  "  When  Lord  Wey- 
mouth met  the  Duke  of  Grafton  last  night,  he  found  no  reason 
to  ground  any  hopes  that  any  coalition  could  be  effected.     My 
conduct  will  show  that  I  never  am  deaf  to  any  apparent  proposals 
of  general  union,  though  no  circumstances  shall  ever  compel  me 
to  be  dictated  to  by  Opposition.      You  may  now  sound   Lord 
Howe;  but  before  I  name  him  to  preside  at  the  Admiralty  Board, 
I  must  expect  an  explicit  declaration  that  he  will  zealously  concur 
in  prosecuting  the  war  in  all  the  quarters  of  the  gloheJ'     In  other 
words,  the  King  was  willing  to  employ  any  one  who  would  con- 
cur with  him  in  his  efforts  to  reduce  the  revolted  colonies  to  obe- 
dience ;  but  would  not  accept  the  services  of  Opposition,  because 
the  Opposition  thought  that  object  unattainable,  and  were  ready 
to  acknowledge  the  independence  of   the  United  States.      The 
result  is  that  it  was  the  King  at  that  period,  and  the  King  only. 


178  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  30. 

who  prevented  a  coalition  of  parties  and  peace  with  America. — 
V.  H. 

*  I  cannot  concur  in  this  last  remark.  The  King's  determina- 
tion to  carry  on  the  war  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe  could  have 
had  no  practical  influence,  had  not  Lord  North  consented  to  re- 
main Minister,  to  carry  on  a  war  of  which  he  disapproved,  and 
had  not  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  supported  a  system 
which  they  believed  in  their  hearts  to  be  fraught  with  danger  to 
the  country.  The  power  of  a  single  will  was  indeed  conspicuous; 
but  the  constitution  afforded  ample  means  of  overruling  that  will, 
had  the  Minister  obeyed  his  own  convictions,  or  had  the  House  of 
Commons  been  true  to  the  people  they  represented.  In  October 
of  this  year.  Lord  Grower  resigned  the  Presidency  of  the  Council. 
^'  I  feey  he  said,  '^  the  greatest  gratitude  for  the  many  marks  of 
royal  goodness  which  I  have  received,  but  I  cannot  think  it  the 
duty  of  a  faithful  servant  to  endeavor  to  preserve  a  system  which 
must  end  in  ruin  to  his  Majesty  and  to  the  country. ^^  In  report- 
ing to  the  King  his  vain  attempts  to  induce  Lord  Gower  to  re- 
main in  office.  Lord  North^  adds  :  "  In  the  argument.  Lord 
North  had  certainly  one  disadvantage,  which  is  that  he  holds  in 
his  heart,  and  has  held  for  three  years  past,  the  same  opinion  with 
Lord  Gower."^  That  is  to  say,  from  1776  Lord  North  had  dis- 
approved, in  his  heart,  the  system  he  had  himself  pursued!* — 

J.  R. 

*  The  following  admirable  letter  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond 
shows  that  he  had  some  doubts  of  the  firmness  of  Mr.  Fox  in 
resisting  the  overtures  of  the  Court.  But,  although  Mr.  Fox  had 
no  personal  objection  to  Lord  North,  and  was  on  friendly  terms 
with  Lord  Weymouth,  his  real  inclination  at  this  time  was  to 
connect  himself  more  closely  with  Mr.  Burke  and  the  Rocking- 
ham party.* — j.  r. 

1  North  MS.  2  See  p.  202. 


1779.]  CHAELES   JAMES   FOX.  179 

DUKE  OF   RICHMOND  TO  MR.  FOX. 

"Goodwood,  February  7,  1779. 

"Dear  Charles  : — 

"  Lord  Rockingham  and  Mr.  Burke  have  shown  me  the  letters 
you  have  written  to  them  by  Lord  Fitzwilliam.^  As  they  relate 
to  a  transaction  in  which  I  was  concern ed,  and  to  which  you  seem 
to  require  further  discussion,  I  trust  you  will  not  be  sorry  to  hear 
directly  from  me  as  well  as  from  them.  Indeed,  I  am  very  desirous 
of  writing  to  you  on  this  subject,  not  to  dispute  points  on  which 
we  may  never  agree,  but  to  set  you  right  on  the  part  which  we, 
to  whom  you  communicated  the  overtures  last  summer,  took  in 
that  business,  and  which  you  seem  to  have  misunderstood. 

'^By  the  first  question  you  ask,  as  by  the  whole  tenor  and 
reasoning  of  your  letters,  as  well  as  of  your  former  conversations, 
you  seem  to  imagine  that  our  refusal  to  treat  upon  the  opening  at 
that  time  made,  arose  from  a  resolution  not  to  take  office  until  the 
^vJiole  of  the  Government  was  surrendered  into  our  hands,  and  the 
King  compelled  to  a  kind  of  submission,  which  you  think  is  not 
to  be  expected,  and  can  never  be  forced ;  for  when  you  mention 
the  manner  of  our  refusal  to  treat  upon  the  basis  of  the  arrange- 
ment proposed  y  your  arguments  all  go  upon  a  supposition  that  the 
hasis  you  speak  of  is  a  coalition  with  some  of  the  men  now  in 
power  in  contradistinction  to  a  total  change  of  Ministry.  Now, 
as  far  as  I  was  concerned,  I  can  positively  say,  and  I  believe  I  might 
answer  for  others,  this  was  not  the  ground  on  which  we  rested  that 
refusal,  and  therefore  you  will  allow  me  to  say,  your  reasonings, 
built  on  that  supposition  alone,  do  not  apply.  Before  I  state 
what  our  refusal  did  rest  upon,  it  will  be  necessary  for  me  to 
describe  what  I  conceive  the  overtures  amounted  to,  what  they 
did  offer,  and  what  they  were  totally  silent  about. 

^^  The  proposal  was,  that  Lord  Weymouth  should  have  the 
Treasury,  and  Mr.  Thurlow  be  Chancellor;    that   arrangements 

•  Sec  p.  174  for  the  letter  to  Lord  Rockingham. 


180  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  30. 

should  be  made  to  take  into  office  the  principal  men  in  Opposition, 
and  that  Lords  North,  G-ermaine,  Suffolk,  Sandwich,  Dartmouth, 
and  perhaps  some  more,  might  quit  their  employments  to  facilitate 
these  arrangements ;  that  Lord  Weymouth  would  be  most  glad 
to  have  Lord  J.  Cavendish  for  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  but 
would  take  any  other  we  should  agree  upon ;  that  Lord  Kocking- 
ham  and  his  friends  might  by  themselves  fill  up  the  vacant  offices, 
or  take  in  the  Duke  of  G-rafton,  Lords  Camden  and  Shelburne.  If 
the  former,  there  would  be  more  room  for  providing  for  friends  ; 
if  the  latter,  less.  But  that  at  all  events  some  must  wait  till 
means  could  be  found  to  accommodate  them  ;  that  the  basis  of  the 
scheme  being  a  coalition,  and  Lord  Weymouth  being  at  the  head 
of  the  new  Ministry,  it  would  follow  of  course  that  none  of  those 
with  whom  he  had  acted  (that  is,  none  of  the  members  of  the  old 
Ministry)  were  to  be  attacked  for  any  part  of  their  conduct  -,  that 
his  Majesty  meant  not  to  suffer  any  of  them  to  be  disgraced  ;  that, 
on  the  contrary,  he  intended  to  bestow  on  them  the  three  blue 
ribbons  then  vacant,  and  other  marks  of  his  favor  and  approbation 
to  such  as  should  retire. 

"  As  to  measures,  none  were  proposed,  except  to  withdraw  the 
troops  in  general  from  North  America,  as  from  necessity  or  pru- 
dence, and  to  carry  on  a  vigorous  war  against  France,  which  was 
stated  as  unavoidable.  No  system  was  proposed,  or  even  sug- 
gested, by  which  the  dependency  of  America  was  to  be  recovered, 
or  its  alliance  as  an  independent  state  procured.  No  foreign 
alliances  were  in  contemplation.  The  management  of  the  East 
India  Company,  and  the  great  possessions  in  India,  were  never 
once  mentioned.  I  do  not  know  that  there  was  any  inclination, 
still  less  any  plan,  for  reducing  the  corrupt  influence  of  the  Crown, 
and  rendering  Parliament  more  independent. 

"  The  dreadful  and  immediately  ruinous  state  of  our  finances 
was  never  in  question ;  no  plan  of  future  resources,  or  of  present 
reformation  and  economy,  was  any  part  of  the  overtures  you  com- 
municated, I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  some  very  slight  discourse 
upon  one  or  two  of  these  points  did  not  pass  between  you  and  us, 
or  that  you  did  not  show  that  inclination  to  act  right  upon  them, 


1779.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  181 

which  your  conduct  for  some  years  past  would  naturally  lead  us 
to  expect  from  you.  But  as  parts  of  your  message,  I  believe  I 
am  correct  in  stating  them  as  I  have  done.  I  might  even  add 
that,  when  we  mentioned  some  past  measures  we  were  bound  to 
the  public  to  see  changed,  you  reminded  us  that  parts  of  Opposi- 
tion were  concerned  the  other  way,  and  how  difficult  it  would  be 
to  agree  to  anything  material  in  respect  to  them. 

"  I  may  be  told  that,  meaning  to  make  us  Ministers,  measures 
were  to  be  in  our  hands,  and  would  be  a  more  proper  subject  for 
discussion  when  the  new  arrangement  should  have  actually  taken 
place.  If  the  change  of  men  was  to  be  a  total  change,  and  the 
new  Ministry,  instead  of  consenting  to  rewards  to  those  whose 
conduct  they  had  been  condemning  for  years  past,  bore  the  com- 
plexion of  a  new  system,  there  might  be  some  weight  in  the  argu- 
ment of  the  propriety  of  leaving  it  till  they  were  fixed  in  office, 
to  determine  on  the  precise  mode  by  which  they  would  support 
their  consistency  of  character;  and  yet,  even  in  such  circum- 
stances, I  should  think  it  more  fair  and  honorable  to  the  King  to 
let  him  know,  before  he  took  us  into  his  service,  at  least  the  general 
plan  of  measures  we  meant  to  pursue,  especially  as  some  of  them 
must  strike  directly  at  what  he  may  have  been  told  is  his  interest, 
and  certainly  at  his  Civil  List — I  mean  at  its  present  extent.  But 
in  a  Ministry  to  be  composed  of  men  who  have  hitherto  profess- 
edly diffi^red  in  principles,  as  well  as  in  the  modes  of  conducting 
them,  it  is  surely  necessary,  unless  men  look  at  nothing  but 
employment,  to  begin  by  having  a  right  understanding  of  the 
conduct  to  be  pursued.  If  I  am  told  that,  without  being  a  total 
change  of  men,  that  which  was  intended  was  so  great  as  to  leave 
only  a  shadow  of  the  present  Administration,  and  that  the  Oppo- 
sition would  have  so  great  a  majority  in  the  Cabinet  that  they 
would  in  fact  have  the  Government  in  their  own  hands,  I  then  say 
that  the  whole  depends  upon  the  share  and  proportion  that  is 
offered  them,  and  that  it  must  be  specifically  described  in  all  its 
parts  before  they  can  judge  whether  it  is  such  as  really  to  give 
them  that  power  which  shall  enable  them  to  pursue  their  own 
measures.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  I  am  ready  to  allow  that  we 
VOL.  I. — 16 


182  COREESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  30. 

ought  not  to  expect  the  removal  of  every  man  in  office,  from  the 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  to  the  lowest  tide-waiter;  and  on  the 
other,  you  will  allow  that  we  must  expect  more  than  the  removal 
of  the  lowest  tide-waiters,  or  even  than  one  or  two  obnoxious  men, 
when  it  is  a  whole  system  we  complain  of.  The  fair  and  practi- 
cable plan  certainly  lies  between  these  two  extremes,  and  depends 
much  upon  the  quantum  that  was  offered,  and  upon  the  manner  and 
complexion  of  the  whole,  whether  it  is  wise  or  mad  to  reject  it; 
for  I  am  sure  you  will  agree  with  me  that  a  very  plausible  general 
offer  may  be  made,  which,  from  peculiar  circumstances,  may  be 
evidently  insidious,  and  which  it  would  nevertheless  be  very  invi- 
dious to  break  off  merely  on  account  of  those  circumstances.  Let 
me  suppose,  for  instance,  that  those  who  say  they  mean  to  give  us 
effectual  power,  should  stipulate  to  have  in  each  board  and  depart- 
ment some  one  man  of  apparently  inoffensive  manners,  but  who 
from  his  connections  we  could  but  look  upon  as  a  spy,  would  not 
such  a  symptom  indicate  rottenness  ?  and  yet,  would  it  not  be 
difficult,  and  certainly  invidious,  to  say  we  broke  off  precisely 
because  such  or  such  a  private  gentleman  was  not  turned  out  of 
office  ?  Before,  therefore,  we  can  possibly  judge  whether  any 
offer  of  the  nature  you  was  to  communicate  is  such  as  can  enable 
us  to  do  any  real  good  to  the  country,  we  must  know  precisely 
either  what  change  of  measures  is  proposed  by  others,  or  the  detail 
of  that  share  of  Grovernment  which  is  offered  to  enable  us  to  carry 
on  our  plans. 

^'  If  I  am  told  that  it  is  difficult  for  Lord  Weymouth  to  open 
upon  all  these  subjects,  and  that,  although  experience  may  have 
convinced  him  that  a  change  both  of  measures  and  of  men  may  be 
necessary,  yet  that  it  would  be  risking  a  great  deal  for  him  to  par- 
ticularize what  measures  he  would  agree  to  change,  and  which  of 
his  former  colleagues  he  would  remove,  without  previously  knowing 
whether  his  offers  of  such  change  would  procure  the  coalition  with 
Opposition  which  he  wishes — I  must  in  return  say,  that  it  would 
be  absurd  in  us,  who  have  every  reason  to  be  confirmed  in  all  our 
former  opinions  of  measures,  to  declare  that  we  could  relax  any  of 
them  without  a  clear  prospect  of  obtaining  some  great  good,  to 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  183 

overbalance  small  concessions ;  and  that  it  would  be  extremely 
unwise  in  us  to  mark  out  the  men  we  wish  to  see  most  advanced 
or  most  degraded,  until  the  moment  that  such  changes  can  take 
place  and  produce  their  effect. 

"  You  may  say  that  mutual  confidence  is  necessary  in  negotiations, 
and  I  agree  that  it  is.  The  most  ready  way  to  show  it  on  the  part 
of  Lord  Weymouth,  if  he  really  intends  the  management  of  affairs 
should  be  in  our  hands,  would  be  for  him  to  advise  the  King  to  send 
for  Lord  Rockingham,  and  to  desire  him  to  form  an  Administration. 
Such  a  step  has  been  twice  taken  in  this  reign,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  on  the  part  of  Lord  Rockingham,  that,  in  the  arrangement 
he  would  make,  Lord  Weymouth  and  his  friends  would  have  that 
share  which  their  conduct  in  bringing  about  the  change  would 
entitle  them  to,  and  this  would  avoid  for  Lord  Weymouth  all  the 
dijficulty  of  his  turning  out  his  former  friends  to  make  room  for 
ours.  But  if  we  are  not  to  make  tlie  arrangement,  and  are  yet  to 
be  supposed  to  have  the  management  of  affairs,  it  becomes  surely 
not  only  fair  but  necessary  that  we  should  have  a  specific  descrip- 
tion of  that  share  of  Government  proposed  for  us,  which  is  to  give 
us  the  means,  weight,  and  authority  to  carry  our  measures;  or  if 
it  is  not  intended  that  we  are  to  direct  the  measures,  it  is  neces- 
sary we  should  have  a  precise  idea  of  those  to  which  we  are  called 
to  accede.  Without  one  of  these  it  is  merely  an  offer  of  places 
without  power,  under  a  bargain  to  screen  those  whom  we  have 
been  so  long  condemning.  Such  an  offer  I  am  sure  you  will  ap- 
prove of  our  rejecting  with  indignation.  I  am  far  from  being 
inclined  to  suspicion,  but  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  forget  that  Lord 
Weymouth  has  already  once  abandoned  us ;  and  not  to  recollect 
that  this  offer,  although  said  to  be  warranted  by  the  King,  comes 
to  us  through  a  second  and  third  hand.  Not  suspicion,  but  pru- 
dence requires  us  to  be  upon  our  guard.  We  cannot  judge  of  the 
degree  of  inclination  there  may  be  in  the  King  to  this  change. 
Lord  Weymouth  or  you,  without  the  least  intention  to  deceive, 
may  not  convey  that  precision  of  disposition  which  in  such  a  busi- 
ness is  so  necessary  to  be  known,  and  it  is  very  dangerous  to  com- 
mence a  negotiation  without  an  absolute  certainty  of  what  the^ 


184  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  30. 

King  means.  You  cannot  be  ignorant  of  tlie  very  strong  reports 
that,  while  Lord  Yv^eymouth  was  oifering  to  treat  with  us  upon  the 
ground  of  removing  some  of  his  colleagues,  they  were  making  like 
offers  to  others !  Which  of  these  treaties  were  authorized,  whether 
both,  or  neither,  we  cannot  know ;  but  you  will  allow  that,  under 
such  circumstances,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  require  a  very  full  and 
authentic  explanation  before  we  can  return  any  other  answer  than 
that  which  we  gave  last  summer ;  a  general  one,  not  resting  upon 
any  one  particular  point,  but  that,/rom  the  complexion  of  the  busi- 
ness, we  did  not  Judge  it  proper  to  enter  any  farther  into  it.  In 
various  respects  circumstances  are  undoubtedly  altered  since  that 
time,  but  the  general  principles  upon  which  any  treaty  can  be 
opened  appear  to  me  to  remain  exactly  the  same ;  and  you  may 
recollect  that  when  you  again  mentioned  the  subject  this  winter,  I 
told  you  that  both  as  to  measures  and  as  to  arrangements,  the 
offer  did  not  seem  to  me  sufficiently  explained;  that  if  Lord  Wey- 
mouth thought  proper  to  reduce  into  writing  his  thoughts  upon 
these  points,  we  could  give  him  a  direct  answer.  Yes  or  No ;  and 
if  ever  this  subject  is  renewed,  I  shall  again  propose  having  it 
detailed.  Then,  to  an  explicit  proposal  we  can  give  an  explicit 
answer,  a  general  no,  if  on  the  whole  we  see  no  prospect  of  its 
answering  our  purpose  of  having  weight  enough  to  do  good — yes, 
if  it  comes  up  to  those  expectations  which  we  think  both  reasona- 
ble and  honest ;  or  if  it  approaches  so  near,  and  with  an  appear- 
ance of  real  good  intentions  as  to  make  us  think  the  difference 
negotiable,  I  shall  in  such  case  be  for  entering  into  treaty.  I  will 
at  the  same  time  consent  that,  if  not  agreed  to,  the  paper  shall  be 
instantly  burnt  in  your  presence,  and  the  contents  never  commu- 
nicated but  in  the  vague  and  uncertain  form  your  communication 
has  hitherto  appeared.  I  really  think  it  has  not  been  possible  for 
us  to  do  otherwise  than  say,  it  is  not  sufficiently  opened  to  enable 
us  to  give  it  any  answer. 

"  I  think  I  have  said  enough  on  your  first  question.  As  to  the 
second,  it  is  impossible  to  answer  it.  How  can  we  tell  whether 
or  not  to  advise  our  friends  to  take  employment,  unless  we  know 
what  measures  are  to  be  carried  on  ?  and  how  can  we  tell  whether 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  185 

we  ourselves  can  support  or  must  oppose  a  Ministry,  whose  very 
names  we  are  hitherto  unacquainted  with,  and  whose  actions  we 
cannot  guess  at?  I  can  only  say  that  if  we  should  again  be 
reduced  by  desertions  to  our  own  party,  which  has  so  long  and  so 
faithfully  acted  together,  I  hope  and  trust  we  shall  not  be  dis- 
mayed, but  still  shall  persevere  in  resisting  what  we  think  wrong, 
and  in  preventing  some  mischief,  if  we  cannot  do  much  positive 
good.  It  is  certainly  a  very  dispiriting  and  tiresome  work,  but  wo 
have  been  used  to  it,  and  receive  good  comfort  from  the  conviction 
that  it  is  an  honorable  line  of  conduct. 

"  I  have  only  one  more  subject  to  mention,  and  that  is  your 
stating  that  those  who  think  differently  from  us,  as  to  entering 
into  this  negotiation,  may  not  think  themselves  justified  in  refusing 
to  accept  of  office  where  they  may  hope  to  do  some  good,  or  that 
they  are  obliged  to  continue  in  an  opposition  which  they  think 
fruitless ;  that  although  they  may  wish  for  a  total  change  as  the 
hest  tiling^  they  may  not  think  themselves  bound,  when  they  see 
that  impossible,  to  reject  the  second  best,  and  leave  things  at  the 
worst.  If  this  reasoning  applies  to  yourself,  and,  circumstanced  as 
things  are,  you  feel  inclined  to  take  employment  with  the  present 
people  (after  a  few  changes  are  made),  I  can  only  say  that  your 
conduct  must  entirely  be  guided  by  your  own  opinions,  and  I  do 
assure  you  that  I  shall  not  impute  your  change  to  any  improper 
desire  for  the  emoluments  of  office.  But  as  I  certainly  differ  from 
you  as  to  the  wisdom  of  such  a  step,  I  cannot  admit  that  it  is  real 
reason  which  governs  you.  I  must  therefore  believe  your  opinions 
to  arise  from  a  mistaken  idea  that  they  are  right,  which  I  think 
your  want  of  patience  in  the  present  difficult  situation,  and  the 
natural  eagerness  of  your  temper,  leads  you  to  believe. 

"  I  can  only  offisr  you  my  opinions,  taken  not  from  prejudice,  I 
trust,  but  from  a  real  anxiety  for  your  welfare,  that  such  a  step 
will  be  far  from  being  for  your  interest.  I  am  sure  you  will  par- 
don the  sincerity  of  so  near  a  relation.  You  have  many  of  those 
social  virtues  which  command  the  love  of  friends.  You  have 
abilities  in  abundance ;  and  your  conduct  of  late  years  has  done 
much  to  regain  that  public  confidence  which  is  so  necessary  to  a 

16* 


18G  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  30. 

public  man.  By  a  steady  perseverance  you  may  accomplish  so 
essential  an  object.  Once  more  pardon  the  effusion  of  a  sincere 
heartj  and  believe  me, 

^^  Ever  yours, 

"RICHMOND." 

The  negotiation  or  negotiations  above  alluded  to  were  far  from 
being  so  much  to  Mr.  Fox's  mind  as  some  expressions  of  the  Duke 
of  Richmond  would  lead  one  to  suppose.  He  acquiesced  in,  and, 
I  believe,  approved  of  the  rejection.  When  I  talked  of  it  to 
General  Fitzpatrick,  he  said  that  Mr.  Fox  treated  the  overture  as 
a  foolish  business ;  but  it  is  clear  to  me  that  Greneral  Fitzpatrick 
had  forgotten  or  confounded  the  transaction ;  for  he  mentioned 
some  circumstances,  such  as  his  ignorance  of  it  at  the  time,  which 
are  inconsistent  with  his  letter  to  his  brother,  hereinafter  tran- 
scribed. It  appears,  however,  from  all  this,  that  the  union  be- 
tween the  regular  aristocratical  Whig  party  and  Mr.  Fox,  though 
they  were  in  effect  practically  inseparable,  was  not  formally  ac- 
complished even  so  late  as  February,  1779.  The  Duke  of 
Kichmond  writes  as  to  a  man  with  whom  he  agrees  and  with 
whom  he  concerts,  but  not  as  to  a  fixed  member  of  some  party,  to 
and  with  whom  he  is  engaged  by  actual  treaty. — v.  H. 

February  11.  In  the  evening  news  of  Keppel's  acquittal 
arrived  in  London.  Illuminations  and  a  riot  ensued.  Palliser's, 
Head's,  and  Mulgrave's  windows  were  broken,  and  those  of  some 
other  persons.  ''It  happened  at  three  in  the  morning,  that  Charles 
Fox,  Lord  Derby,  and  his  brother.  Major  Stanley,  and  two  or  three 
more  young  men  of  quality,  having  been  drinking  at  Almack's, 
suddenly  thought  of  making  a  tour  of  the  streets,  and  were  joined 
by  the  Duke  of  Ancaster,  who  was  very  drunk,  and,  what  showed 
it  was  no  premeditated  scheme,  the  latter  was  a  courtier,  and  had 
actually  been  breaking  windows.  Finding  the  mob  before 
Palliser's  house,  some  of  the  young  lords  said  :  '  Why  don't  you 
break  Lord  Gr.  Germaine's  windows  ?'  The  populace  had  been  so 
little  tutored  that  they  asked  who  he  was,  and  being  encouraged 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  187 

broke  his  windows.  The  mischief  pleasing  the  juvenile  leaders, 
they  marched  to  the  Admiralty,  forced  the  gates,  and  demolished 
Palliser's  and  Lord  Lisburne's  windows.  Lord  Sandwich,  ex- 
ceedingly terrified,  escaped  through  the  garden,  with  his  mistress, 
Miss  Kay,  to  the  Horse  Guards^  and  there  betrayed  most  mani- 
fest panic."* 

February  12.  "  Keppel  thanked  by  House  of  Commons,  with 
only  one  dissentient  voice." 

February  18.  ^^  Wedderburne,  Attorney-Greneral,  having  under- 
taken to  prosecute  the  three  rioters,  notice  was  taken  of  it  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  Charles  Fox  handsomely  and  generously, 
though  liable  to  be  reproached  with  having  been  one  of  their  in- 
stigators, pleaded  for  them.  The  court  was  ashamed,  and  dropped 
the  prosecution." 

February  19.  "Charles  Fox  told  the  Commons  that  he  had 
intended  to  move  an  Address  to  the  King,  to  remove  Sir  H. 
Palliser  from  all  his  employments,  but  had  that  morning  heard  a 
report  that  precluded  his  motion,  for  he  had  been  told  that  Sir 
Hugh  had  been  dismissed  or  removed  from  all  his  employments, 
and  asked  if  either  was  true.  Lord  North  said:  'It  was  true  that 
he  had  resigned  his  seat  at  the  Admiralty,  his  Government  at 
Scarborough  Castle,  and  his  Lieutenant-Generalship  of  the  Ma- 
rines.' Fox  broke  out  on  the  scandalous  tenderness  for  a  man 
so  criminal,  compared  with  the  treatment  of  the  meritorious  Kep- 
pel, to  whom  the  Ministers  had  only  written  coldly  to  hoist  his 
flag  again.  He  said  he  did  not  want  to  persecute  the  unhappy  man, 
nor  saw  what  good  a  court-martial  could  do  him,  for  it  could  not 
clear  him  from  having  brought  a  malicious  and  unjust  charge 
against  Keppel,  which  disqualified  him  from  ever  serving  as  Vice- 
Admiral,  and,  therefore,  he  had  a  mind  to  move  for  taking  that 
rank  from  him.  He  might  still  have  a  court-martial,  as  Lord  G. 
Germaine  had  had  (after  some  objections  to  prejudging,  in  which 

•  It  was  always  said  that  tlie  late  Mr.  Thomas  Grenville  participated 
in  this  riot  at  the  Admiralty.     But  these  were  lawless  days ! — J.  R. 


188        -  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  30. 

Conway  agreed).  Charles  Fox,  in  compliment  to  Conway,  ab- 
stained from  his  motion.''^ 

February  20.  On  Keppel  dining  at  London  Tavern,  "  the  city 
was  again  illuminated,  and  it  spread  to  Westminster  after  mid- 
night, when  the  mob  was  far  more  riotous  than  the  preceding 
night,  and  far  more  windows  were  broken ;  but  it  was  believed  to 
be  at  the  instigation  of  the  Court,  to  make  the  Opposition  sick  of 
such  rejoicings;  for  many  windows  of  the  Opposition  were  broken, 
particularly  Charles  Fox's." 

February  24.  On  Lord  North's  Budget,  ^^  Charles  Fox,  who 
had  never  applied  to  finance,  nor  was  supposed  to  understand  it 
at  all,  entered  into  the  subject,  and  made  as  great  a  figure  as  he 
did  on  all  others,  and  exposed  Lord  North  in  that  light  as  much 
as  he  had  in  others." 


RICHARD  FITZPATRICK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"February  15,  1779. 

"  Dear  Brother  : — 

''  According  to  your  desire  to  give  you  an  account  of  what  has 
passed,  the  message  that  was  received  on  Sunday  was,  that  the 
person  [the  Kimj]  desired  till  morning  to  consider  of  it,  and  this 
morning  he  sent  word  by  the  negotiator  [Lord  Weymouth]  that 
any  coalition  would  be  agreed  to,  but  that  the  main  object  [the 
Treasury]  could  not  be  granted  ]  so  that,  as  things  appear  at  pre- 
sent, the  negotiation  must  break  ofi",  which  the  person  who  brought 
the  message  expressed  great  concern  for.  This  being  the  case, 
Charles  Fox  desires  me  to  tell  you  that  they  mean  to  proceed 
immediately  in  the  most  hostile  manner.     I  don't  know  what  we 

1  I  remember  Mr.  Fox  telling  me  that,  at  the  close  of  the  debate,  young 
Pitt  (afterwards  the  Minister)  lamented  to  him  that  he  did  not  persist 
in  his  motion,  as  he  (Pitt)  feared  enough  had  not  been  done  to  prevent 
Palliser  from  ever  being  employed  or  promoted.  Pitt  afterwards  gave 
him,  if  I  mistake  not,  Greenwich  Hospital,  and  had,  I  suspect,  some  diffi- 
culty in  resisting  the  King's  urgent  instances  to  name  him  to  the  Channel 
Fleet.— V.  H. 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  189 

shall  have  to-morrow  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  in  the  Lords, 
the  thanks  to  Keppel  are  to  be  moved.  I  take  it  for  granted  you 
will  come  on  Wednesday,  and  will  probably  find  something  going 
on  in  the  House  of  Commons.  I  don't  know  whether  the  mys- 
terious language  at  the  beginning  of  this  letter  will  be  clear 
enough,  but  I  think  you  will  guess  the  import  of  it.  In  short,  I 
am  afraid  all  chance  of  the  present  opportunity  is  at  an  end. 
Adieu." 

[On  the  debates  produced  by  the  Spanish  Manifesto,  the  two 
following  letters,  in  both  of  which  Mr.  Fox  is  mentioned,  were 
written  by  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  to  his  brother  Lord  Ossory]  : — 


MR.  FITZPATRICK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

^^  Saturday,  June  19,  1779, 

"  The  event  of  the  Spanish  declaration  has  hitherto  produced 
nothing  but  a  very  general  consternation,  and  a  most  universal 
acknowledgment  of  the  necessity  of  changing  the  Ministry,  which 
most  people  think  must  take  place,  though,  in  point  of  voting,  the 
numbers  were  much  as  usual  in  both  Houses.  Some  violent  peo- 
ple thought  the  conduct  of  Opposition  too  moderate  upon  the 
occasion,  but  I  think  you  will  approve  of  it;  for  it  surely  would 
have  been  an  unpopular  measure  to  have  refused  their  support 
upon  the  present  occasion.  Lord  John  Cavendish  seconded  the 
Address,  and  he,  with  Charles,  Burke,  &c.,  went  to  St.  James's 
with  it.  The  two  latter  spoke  admirably  in  the  debate,  and  so, 
indeed,  the  first.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  distinguished  himself 
very  much  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  met  with  approbation  from 
all  quarters.  Lord  Shelburne  (which  some  people  thought  was 
done  purposely)  seemed  determined  to  be  as  violent  as  the  other 
was  moderate,  and  pronounced  a  most  furious  philippic,  in  the 
coarsest  terms,  against  the  Ministers,  chiefly  North,  Sandwich, 
and  Germaine.  Our  friend  Carlisle  attempted  the  defence  of  the 
latter  in  a  short  speech. 

"  I  was  in  the  House,  and  heard  these  two  speeches.     It  is  still 


190  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  30. 

said  that  Parliament  will  be  prorogued  on  Monday  or  Tuesday. 
The  Spanish  fleet  has  sailed;  twelve  ships  from  Cadiz,  the  27th 
of  May,  and  twenty  more  on  the  3d  of  June.  Add  these  to  M. 
D'Orvilliers's,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  hear  the  Lord  Advocate 
has  said  that  he  wished  to  hear  Sir  Charles  Hardy  was  to  engage 
them  the  morrow.  All  people  see  the  necessity  of  withdrawing 
the  troops  from  America.  None  of  the  Tories  in  town  stayed  out 
the  debate  the  other  night,  except  Baldwyn,  who  voted  with  us, 
and  declared  himself  sick  of  America.  One  can  hardly  conceive 
but  they  will  make  some  attempt  this  summer  either  here  or  in 
Ireland,  and  if  our  fleet  is  beat,  it  will  probably  be  a  very  serious 
one." 

"  Monday  night. 

"  I  fancy  by  this  night's  post  you  will  receive  a  letter  upon  the 
subject  you  mention,  which  will  bring  you  to  London,  and  which 
will  inform  you  of  an  event  we  have  expected,  and  which  I  think 
a  very  good  one.  I  went  this  morning  to  Lord  Shelburne's,  but 
did  not  find  him.  I  am  glad  to  find  your  politics  agree  so  exactly 
with  mine,  for  though  I  told  you  I  thought  the  supporting  the 
Address  was  wise,  I  approved  much  more  of  the  violence  of  Lord 
Shelburne's  speech  than  the  moderation  of  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond's, which  I  have  been  inveighing  against  ever  since.  To-day, 
however,  we  have  had  a  debate,  in  which  Opposition  have  been 
less  moderate ;  Lord  North  moved  a  bill  to  double  the  militia, 
which  was  seconded  by  Lord  Beauchamp.  What  may  not  be 
hoped  from  the  activity  of  Lord  North  and  the  vigor  of  Lord 
Beauchamp  ?  Charles  spoke  in  favor  of  the  motion,  but  strongly 
against  Ministers,  and  showed  what  resources  his  mind  was  capa- 
ble of  in  this  menacing  crisis.  Tommy  Townshend  spoke  well 
and  very  violently,  so  did  Sir  Gr.  Savile  and  Barre,  and  the  Minis- 
ters seemed  really  totally  sunk.  To-morrow,  a  remonstrance  is 
expected  from  the  city.  An  invasion  either  of  England  or  Ire- 
land must  take  place,  and  surely  it  is  impossible  these  Ministers 
should  remain.  Adieu.  I  suppose  I  shall  see  you  to-morrow  or 
next  day." 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  191 

"  P.  S. — G.  Selwyn  is  just  arrived  from  Paris,  but  seems  not 
to  have  the  least  idea  of  anything  that  is  going  forward.  John- 
stone voted  with  us,  and  Mansfield  not  at  all ;  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land and  Lord  Chatham  voted  in  Opposition,  but  did  not  protest. 
Lord  Derby,  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  Lord  Harrington,  have  offered 
to  raise  regiments,  but  have  received  no  positive  answers  to  their 
proposals." 

[In  the  following  autumn,  the  combined  fleets  of  France  and 
Spain  entered  the  chops  of  the  Channel,  and  paraded  for  several 
days  before  Plymouth.  Of  their  first  appearance  off  the  Lizard, 
Mr.  Fox  sent  the  following  account  to  Lord  Ossory]  : — 

LoNDOX,  April  17. 

"Dear  Ossory: — 

"  The  French  and  Spanish  fleets  are  certainly  off  Lizard  Point, 
and  between  Sir  Charles  Hardy  and  Plymouth.  You  may 
depend  on  this  being  true ;  sixty-three  were  seen ;  but  whether 
there  were  more  or  not,  or  how  many  of  them  were  frigates,  is 
not  certain.  There  must  be  a  battle,  and  Sir  Charles  Hardy  has 
but  thirty-six. 

"  Yours  ever, 

♦'C.J.  FOX." 

[Happening  to  be  at  Plymouth  a  few  days  afterwards,  when 
the  combined  squadrons  threatened  to  make  a  second  appearance 
in  the  Channel,  he  sent  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  the  following  particu- 
lars of  this  mortifying  state  of  things,  to  which  nothing  since  the 
days  of  Elizabeth  had  been  parallel]:  — 

MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

''Saltram,  August  2&,  at  night. 

"Dear  Dick: — 

"  Lord  Hervey  and  Pakenham,  who  anchored  last  night  in 

Cawsand  Bay,  brought  an  account  that  Darby  was  gone  up  the 

Channel,  and  that  the  combined  fleets  were  steering  this  way. 


192  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  30. 

This  morning,  Lord  Shuldham  and  the  Commissioner  have  re- 
ceived letters  from  Darby,  telling  them  that  he  is  gone  into  Tor- 
bay,  and  that  he  had  heard  of  the  combined  fleet  in  lat.  47°,  long. 
10°,  sailing  to  the  N.  E.,  with  about  forty  sail  of  the  line.  From 
what  Lord  Hervey  and  Pakenham  said  last  night,  everybody  ex- 
pected the  enemy  here  immediately,  and  many  people  imagined 
that  Darby  had  seen  the  combined  fleet,  and  was  actually  chased 
in  by  them;  but,  upon  inquiry,  this  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
the  case  at  all.  All  that  Darby  knows  of  the  enemy  is  from  an 
account  of  a  Portuguese  vessel,  who  says  that  he  spoke  with  the 
combined  fleet,  in  the  latitude  I  mentioned,  on  Tuesday  se'n-night 
last ;  Darby,  upon  hearing  they  were  gone  to  the  northward,  kept 
close  to  the  French  coast,  and  came  by  Guernsey,  &c.,  to  Torbay, 
and,  as  I  could  collect  from  his  letter,  which  Lord  Shuldham  read 
us,  was  a  good  deal  surprised  that  the  enemy  should  not  have 
been  seen  or  heard  of  here.  You  have  now  all  the  facts  that  we 
have,  and  may  reason  upon  them  as  well  in  London  as  we  can  here. 
What  seems  extraordinary  is,  that  the  enemy,  if  he  was  actually 
so  near  as  the  latitude  and  longitude  mentioned  on  Tuesday,  the 
14th,  should  not  be  near  enough  to  be  seen  or  heard  of  before  this 
time,  if  the  Channel  was  actually  his  destination;  and  yet  what 
other  destination  he  could  have  northward,  one  cannot  conceive. 
I  forgot  to  mention,  that  though  the  number  of  ships  of  the  line 
is  said  to  be  between  forty  and  fifty,  the  whole  fleet  is  said  to  con- 
sist of  ninety  sail.  I  shall  go  to  Torbay  to-morrow,  and  see  if  I 
can  get  any  more  light  upon  this  business  from  Jarvis,  or  any  of 
the  captains  I  know.  If  I  do,  I  will  write  again.  If  I  should 
think,  from  what  I  hear,  that  there  is  really  any  chance  of  their 
coming,  you  will  easily  imagine  that  I  shall  not  leave  this  country 
so  soon  as  I  otherwise  intended;  but  I  think,  if  they  do  not  appear 
very  soon,  the  whole  must  be  a  mistake,  or  perhaps,  after  all, 
designedly  false  intelligence.  I  shall  be  in  town  on  Friday  or 
Saturday,  unless  there  is  a  probability  of  more  interesting  sport 
here  than  partridge-shooting. 

^^  Yours  affectionately.'^ 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  193 

MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

<'Saltkam,  August  27. 

"I  dined  to-day  on  board  ^Sir  John  Ross/  with  Jarvis  and 
others,  but  have  very  little  to  tell  you  in  addition  to  what  I  wrote 
last  night.  The  facts  were  exactly  as  I  told  you  them,  only  I 
understand  now  that  the  Portuguese  vessel  was  in  fact  an  English 
one,  with  Portuguese  colors  and  nominal  owners,  to  secure  it  from 
privateers,  and  that  the  master  of  her  was  an  Englishman ;  his 
journal,  too,  was  inspected,  and  tallied  with  the  account  he  gave. 
In  short,  I  find  they  all  believe  his  intelligence  to  have  been  true. 
But  why  the  combined  fleet  is  not  now  here,  if  it  was  coming  this 
way,  is  what  nobody  seems  to  account  for;  Jarvis  thinks  they  are 
gone  into  Quiberon  Bay,  in  order  to  see  the  Dutch  Indiamen, 
which  they  had  with  them,  safe  into  Port  FOrient,  and  to  bring 
the  troops  with  them  that  they  may  want  for  attacking  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  Portland,  or  whatever  may  be  their  object.  Others  think 
(and  I  think  with  more  probability)  that  they  are  cruizing  oif 
the  Lizard,  in  hopes  of  intercepting  Darby,  whom  they  suppose  to 
be  to  the  westward,  and  whom  they  must  naturally  expect  to  come 
home  that  way,  as  he  certainly  would  have  done  if  he  had  not 
obtained  intelligence  of  them.  The  only  objection  to  this  suppo- 
sition is,  that  they  could  not  have  formed  any  rational  hope  of 
bringing  Darby  to  action  against  his  will,  as  the  Spanish  part  of 
the  fleet  is  said  to  be  very  foul;  so  that  Darby  could  certainly  (as 
they  say)  have  got  home  without  an  engagement,  even  if  he  had 
come  that  way.  I  think  it  a  very  difficult  matter  to  guess  what 
they  mean;  but  one  should  think  it  impossible  that  with  such  a 
decided  superiority  they  should  attempt  nothing.  Darby  waits  at 
Torbay  for  orders,  which  he  expects  to-morrow  or  next  day.  I 
shall  dine  on  board  Jarvis,  Wednesday,  and  from  thence  proceed 
to  London  or  return  here,  according  as,  upon  the  general  face  of 
things,  I  think  anything  likely  to  happen  here.  The  fleet  to-da3' 
was  a  most  magnificent  sight.  It  was  formed  in  order -that,  in 
case  of  an  attack,  they  may  not  be  found  in  the  confusion  that 
VOL.  1. — 17 


194  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  30. 

Johnstone  was;  and  faith,  when  one  looks  at  it  and  thinks  there  is 
a  possibility  of  its  coming  to  action  in  a  day  or  two,  on  se  sent  emu 
heaucoup.  If  some  things  were  otherwise  at  home,  and  the  fleet 
was  commanded  by  Keppel,  one  should  feel  very  eager  indeed ; 
when,  even  in  the  present  damned  state  of  things,  who  cannot  help 
feeling  something  at  the  sight  of  it  ?  It  seems  to  be  the  opinion 
that,  if  they  do  come.  Darby  will  make  some  sort  of  fight  with  them 
in  the  narrow  part  of  the  Channel.  At  all  events,  if  the  French 
should  come  again,  I  cannot  think  they  will  go  away  as  they  did 
before,  and  that  there  must,  either  at  sea  or  land,  be  qiielque  chose 
a  voir;  in  which  case  I  should  be  very  much  vexed  indeed,  to  have 
left  this  country  just  before  the  sight  begins.     Adieu. 

^^  Yours  ever  most  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  FOX. 

'^  By  Zoutman's  account  I  perceive  the  Dutch  were  rather  in- 
ferior than  superior  to  Parker.  When  one  considers  that  there 
was  hardly  an  officer  on  board  their  fleet  that  ever  saw  a  gun  fired, 
ilfaut  avouer  que  ce  ne  sont  pas  des  plates  gens." 

MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

•'  Saltbam,  August  28. 

"  There  has  been  a  strong  south-west  wind  all  day,  but  no  news 
nor  even  report  at  Plymouth.  I  go  to-morrow  to  Torbay,  and 
probably  on  to  London. 

"  Yours  ever  affectionately." 

Soon  after  this  alarm,  he  appears  to  have  credited  a  report  that 
Ministers  had  determined  to  resign,  for  on  the  5th  of  September 
he  writes  to  Fitzpatrick :  "  I  really  think  there  is  now  a  possi- 
bility of  saving  the  country,  if  these  foolish  people  will  give  up 
the  thing  to  those  who  know  better.  Between  this  and  next 
campaign  there  is  time  for  increasing  the  navy  incredibly,  or  for, 
what  would  be  much  better,  making  a  peace  which  we  should 
dare  to  do,  and  these  poor  devils  dare  not.'^     But  whatever  was 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  195 

the  ground  for  those  expectations,  they  were  quickly  dissipated. 
On  the  appearance  of  an  extraordinary  Gazette,  announcing  the 
destruction  of  the  American  squadron  on  the  Penobscot,  he  writes 
as  follows : — 


"  HuNTSTAXTON,  September  27. 
"  Dear  Dick  : — 

"If  one  really  wished  nothing  but  the  destruction  of  those  we 
hate,  the  extraordinary  Gazette  we  have  just  received  would  be 
very  good  news;  for  I  think  nothing  more  likely  than  that  this 
event  may  give  them  spirits  to  persevere  in  the  war,  which  I  can- 
not help  thinking  they  had  determined  to  give  up.  What  a 
puppy  that  Sir  George  Collier  must  be !  Are  not  the  Americans 
thought  to  have  behaved  very  ill;  or  was  Sir  George's  force  more 
superior  than  he  represents  it?  If  this  should  encourage  them  to 
persist,  I  think  it  makes  their  ruin  quite  sure,  and  perhaps,  in  the 
end,  as  complete  as  even  you  or  I  can  wish ;  but  then  everything 
else  will  be  so  bad  that  it  is  impossible  to  wish  it.  I  have  just 
been  reading  the  Koailles  Memoirs,  and  when  one  thinks  of  what 
this  country  was  then  and  is  now,  it  is  enough  to  make  one  sick. 
How  ruinous  everything  done  by  Tories  is  always  destined  to  be! 
for  I  think  it  cannot  be  denied  but  we  feel  the  mischief  of  the 
peace  of  Utrecht  even  now. 

'^  Yours  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 

[Lord  North's  application  to  retire,  and  the  King's  unwilling- 
ness to  accept  his  resignation,  continued  throughout  the  summer. 
At  one  time.  Lord  North  appears  to  have  suggested  Lord  Gower 
as  his  successor;  for  on  the  22d  of  June  the  King  writes  to  him]  : 
"  It  is  no  compliment  when  I  say  that  Lord  Gower  would  be  a 
poor  substitute  for  Lord  North.  What  I  said  yesterday  was  the 
dictates  of  frequent  and  severe  self-examination.  I  can  never  de- 
part from  it.  Before  I  will  hear  of  any  man's  readiness  to  come 
into  office,  I  will  expect  to  see  it  signed  under  his  own  hand  that 
he  is  resolved  to  keep  the  Empire  entire,  and  that  no  troops  shall 


196  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  30. 

consequently  be  withdrawn  from  thence,  nor  independence  ever 
allowed." 

[In  the  beginning  of  winter,  Lord  North,  being  still  solicitous 
to  retire,  and  Lord  Thurlow,  Lord  Gower  (who  had  come  to  town 
in  September),  and  Lord  Weymouth,  concurring  in  opinion  that 
the  Ministry  could  not  carry  on  the  public  business  without  an 
accession  of  strength,  the  King,  after  another  ineffectual  effort  to 
work  on  the  feelings  of  Lord  North  (November  30,  1779),  was 
prevailed  upon  to  give  authority  to^  Lord  Thurlow  to  open  a 
negotiation  with  the  leaders  of  Opposition,^  and.  to  declare  to 
them  his  Majesty's  willingness]  ^'to  blot  from  his  remem- 
brance any  events  that  may  have  displeased  him,  and  to  admit 
into  his  confidence  and  service  any  men  of  public  spirit  and  ta- 
lents who  will  join  with  part  of  the  present  Ministry  in  forming 
one  on  a  more  enlarged  scale,  provided  it  be  understood  that  every 
means  are  to  be  employed  to  heep  the  Empire  entire,  to  prosecute 
the  present  just  and  unprovoked  war  in  all  its  branches,  with  the 
utmost  vigor,  and  that  his  Majesty's  past  measures  be  treated  with 
proper  respect."  [In  a  subsequent  communication,^  Lord  Thur- 
low is  authorized  to  inform  the  person  with  whom  he  had  con- 
versed] "  that  Lord  North's  situation  will  not  stand  in  the  way  of 
any  arrangement,  and  that  he  does  not  desire  to  be  a  part  of  any 
new  administration.  ^  This,'  adds  the  King,  ^  ought  to  convince 
that  person  that  I  really  mean  a  coalition  of  parties,  and  not  to 
draw  him  in  to  support  the  present  Ministry.' " 

[Furnished  with  this  authority.  Lord  Thurlow  seems  to  have 
proceeded  in  a  strange  way  to  execute  his  commission.  Instead 
of  using  the  King's  name,  he]  "conversed  with  Lord  Camden, 
Lord  Shelburne,  and  others,  but  still  as  a  private  man,  disclaiming 
all  authority  to  make  proposals.  '  They  declined,'  he  says,  in  his 
report  of  what  had  passed,  to  the  King,  ^  to  enter  into  that  sort  of 
conversation  with  me  on  that  footing,  but  they  never  imagined 
that  they  were  returning  an  answer  to  your  Majesty.'  " 

[The  King,  on  his  part,  was  offended  by  the  "cold  and  distant" 

'  Deceml3er  3,  1776.  ^  December  8,  1779. 


1779.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  197 

manner  in  which  Lord  Thurlow's  overtures  had  been  received, 
and  when  no  other  answer  could  be  obtained  than  that  "  a  coali- 
tion seemed  not  to  suit  their  views/^  he  observes/  with  a  warmth 
which  Lord  Thurlow's  subsequent  explanation^  does  not  appear 
to  have  allayed] :  "  From  the  cold  disdain  with  which  I  am 
treated,  it  is  evident  to  me  what  treatment  I  am  to  expect  from 
Opposition,  if  I  was  to  call  them  into  my  service.  To  obtain 
their  support,  I  must  deliver  up  my  person,  my  principles,  and 
my  dominions  into  their  hands. '^  [The  truth  seems  to  have  been 
that  the  King  was  unwilling  to  part  with  Lord  North,  whom  he 
could  govern,  and  unwilling  to  put  himself  in  the  power  of  Op- 
position, who  would  have  insisted  on  governing  him.] 

[The  spirit  in  which  the  Opposition  were  disposed  to  receive 
these  overtures  appears  from  the  following  letter  of  Mr.  Fitz- 
patrick  to  his  brother.  Lord  Ossory.  It  was  impossible,  indeed, 
for  them  to  listen  to  conditions  which  were  at  variance  with  the 
opinion  they  entertained  of  the  impolicy  of  continuing  the  con- 
test for  reducing  the  revolted  colonies  to  obedience.  They  must 
have  regarded  the  proposals  made  to  them  to  be  insincere,  as 
intended  not  to  procure  their  assistance,  but  to  reconcile  Lord 
North  to  his  situation,  by  the  impossibility  of  his  quitting  it  with- 
out abandoning  the  King  to  those  whom  his  Majesty  was  pleased 
to  consider  as  his  enemies.]  ^ 

MR.  FIT2PATIIICK   TO  LORD   OSSORY. 

"  Thursday  night,  December  2,  1779. 

"  The  debate  yesterday  in  the  House  of  Lords  was  the  best  I 
ever  remember  to  have  heard.  By  coming  late,  I  lost  the  first 
half  of  Lord  Shelburne's  speech ;  but  what  I  heard  I  thought 
excellent,  very  violent,  and  very  personal  to  the  King  :  in  short, 
a  counterpart  of  Charles  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  to-day 
he  told  me  he  meant  it  as  such.  Many  compliments  in  it  to  the 
Rockinghams,  which  were  answered  on  their  side,  and  the  Duke 

I  December  18,  1779.  2  December  26,  1779^ 

17* 


198  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  31. 

of  Richmond  equalled  him  ia  violence.  Lord  Gower  spoke  in  the 
most  hostile  manner  to  Administration,  though  he  voted  against 
the  motion,  upon  the  grounds  of  the  neglects  not  being  proved 
sufficiently  to  justify  or  censure,  though  he  said  he  knew  them 
from  opportunities  which  he  as  a  Minister  had  had,  but  which 
the  House  were  not  in  possession  of.  He  was  personal  to  Lord 
North  upon  the  subject  of  negligence,  and  added  that  he  was 
clearly  of  opinion  that  this  Administration  were  unequal  to  the 
conduct  of  the  war,  and  could  not  save  the  country,  which  he 
thought  union  could  only  eflPect.  The  idea  of  union  with  any  of 
the  present  Ministers  was  universally  rejected  from  every  quarter 
of  Opposition,  and  Lord  Camden  spoke  admirably  upon  that  sub- 
ject. The  Chancellor  was  the  only  tolerable  speaker  on  their 
side,  and  he  defended  it  only  upon  the  ground  of  its  not  being 
sufficiently  proved  to  proceed  to  a  censure.  Upon  the  whole,  it 
was  a  very  good  day  in  all  respects,  except  numbers,  which  were 
as  usual.  Lord  Shelburne  seemed  much  pleased  to-day,  and  told 
me  he  thought  the  appearance  of  union  in  Opposition  gave  him 
more  hopes  than  anything  he  had  yet  seen.  He  was  very  severe 
upon  Lord  Mansfield  (but  he  was  not  there)  and  Wedderburne, 
and  his  speech  was  really  one  of  the  finest  I  ever  heard.  The 
post  is  going  out,  and  I  can  say  no  more.    Charles  is  quite  well." 

On  the  29th  of  November  the  duel  between  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr. 
Adam  took  place.  It  is  a  subject  upon  which  we  should  expect 
Horace  "Walpole  to  expatiate,  but  from  this  very  date  the  entries 
are  not  in  his  own  handwriting.  They  are  full  of  gross  blunders 
in  orthography,  and  evidently  written  by  some  ignorant  person 
from  Walpole's  dictation. 

1780. 

February  2.  "Meeting  for  a  petition  in  Westminster  Hall. 
The  Court  party  dispersed  handbills  to  represent  the  dearness  of 
coals,  and  thence  to  excite  the  people  against  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond as  enriched  by  the  coal-tax.     About  3000  persons  met, 


1780.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  199 

headed  by  Duke  of  Portland,  the  Cavendishes,  Charles  Fox, 
Richard  Fitzpatrick,  Wilkes,  Sawbridge,  Lord  Temple,  and  the 
Grenvilles,  General  Burgoyne,  Burke,  Townshends,  &c.  Charles 
Fox  was  placed  in  the  chair.  Sawbridge  moved  the  petition,  and 
was  seconded  by  "Wilkes ;  and  a  petition  similar  to  that  of  York 
voted,  and  a  committee  of  Lords  and  others  chosen.  Charles  Fox 
then  made  a  fine  and  warm  speech,  and  was  particularly  severe 
on  Lord  North  and  the  Duke  of  Northumberland.  Dr.  Jebb  pro- 
posed Mr.  Fox  for  the  future  candidate  for  Westminster,  which 
was  received  with  universal  applause.  Lord  J.  Cavendish  and 
Charles  Turner  likewise  spoke.'' 

"  It  was  curious  to  see  Charles  Fox,  lately  so  unpopular  a  cha- 
racter, become  the  idol  of  the  people.  His  family*  were  still  in 
possession  of  200,000?.  of  public  money,  his  father's  accounts  not 
being  yet  passed." 

February  8.  "  Sir  G.  Savile,  in  presenting  the  Yorkshire 
petition,  used  many  threats  of  the  resentment  of  petitioners. 
Lord  North  turned  the  argument  artfully,  and  said  he  found  the 
Parliament  was  to  be  threatened,  and  not  allowed  even  to  inquire 
whether  there  were  abuses  or  not.  Charles  Fox  finely  and  wisely 
explained  away  Sir  G.  Savile's  violence,^  and  used  an  allusion, 
much  admired,  to  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.    The  ruin  of  the  nation 

1  Horace  Walpole  knew,  or  at  least  should  liave  known,  for  his  family 
had  been  frequently  in  a  similar  situation,  that  the  delay  of  passing  public 
accounts  was  not  in  those  days  at  all  the  fault  of  the  Accountant  or  his 
representatives,  but  of  the  system  generally,  and  sometimes  of  the  public 
offices  and  Treasury. — V.  H. 

^  Mr.  Fox  had  a  great  esteem  for  Sir  George  Savile,  and  a  great  admira- 
tion of  his  subtlety  in  argument  and  his  fancy  in  illustration.  He^was 
particularly  struck  with  a  homely  but  forcible  illustration  of  the  injustice 
of  making  war  on  a  nation  for  any  commercial  regulations  or  exclusions : 
"  Sir,"  said  Sir  George,  "  I  have  no  right  to  knock  a  man  down  because 
he  won't  buy  my  leather  breeches."  I  remember,  when  a  boy,  asking 
Mr.  Fox,  who  had  been  the  best  speaker  in  his  time  who  had  never  held 
or  aspired  to  office.  "  Sir  George  Savile,"  answered  he,  "  and  Mr.  Wind- 
ham." It  was  then  thought  that  V/indham  would  not  take  office,  though 
he  had,  by  the  by,  once  accepted  it. — V.  H. 


200  COERESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  31. 

had  been  laid  to  the  OiDposition,  but  now  it  would  be  seen  who 
was  the  real  mother  of  the  child." 

February  14.  On  petitions  for  retrenchment  and  reform. 
"  Charles  Fox  congratulated  Lord  North  ironically  on  his  being 
grown  so  moderate,  and  was  very  severe  on  Lord  Hillsborough. 
Colonel  Onslow  violent  against  Duke  of  Richmond,  particularly 
for  surveying  the  ground  in  Sussex,  and  for  what  the  Due 
d'Aguillon  had  said  to  him.  The  Duke  was  defended  by  General 
Conway  and  Charles  Fox,  who  laughed  at  Onslow's  being  alarmed 
at  one  of  the  King's  generals  surveying  the  coast.^^ 

February  29.  "Mr.  Charles  Fox  and  Mr.  Wyvil  almost 
quarrelled  on  the  latter  insisting  that  no  members  of  Parliament 
should  be  on  the  deputation  of  the  committees  of  petitions.  At 
last  it  was  compromised  that  it  should  not  be  specified  as  a  con- 
dition, but  that  none  should  be  sent.^^ 

March  8.  On  Rigby  questioning  the  right  of  Commons  to 
inquire  into  the  Civil  List,  "  Fox,  Burke,  Conway,  and  others 
would  not  allow  that  the  right  of  the  House  could  be  doubted ; 
and  declared,  if  denied,  they  would  appeal  to  the  people." 

March  13.  A  memorable  day.  Board  of  Trade  voted  useless 
by  207  to  199,  and  an  episode  no  less  remarkable  [Rigby  having, 
in  defence  of  himself,  against  a  Sir  Edward  Deering,  repeated  his 
doctrine  of  the  6th].  "  Charles  Fox  protested  against  so  unpar- 
liamentary a  declaration,  and  said  he  would  appeal  to  the  highest 
authority,  the  Speaker.  This  was  probably  in  concert,  or  at  least 
Sir  Fletcher  had  declaimed  against  Bigby's  doctrine  to  Fox,  for 
on  this  appeal  the  Speaker  came  down  from  the  gallery,  and  made 
a  warm  and  good  speech  against  the  increased  influence  of  the 
Crown,  and  in  favor  of  the  petitions,  though  he  condemned  the 
associations." 

March  13.  On  question  of  Board  of  Trade,  Charles  Fox  was 
very  severe  on  Gribbon,  who  was  brought  down  in  a  fit  of  the  gout 
to  vote,  as  did  all  the  board  in  their  own  cause,  except  Soame 
Jenyns,  who  retired. 

March  17.  Associations  move  two  resolutions,  one  for  "a 
more  equal,  and  consequently  new  mode  of  representation,"  the 


1780.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  201 

other  for  frequent,  and,  at  first,  for  triennial  parliaments.  ^'Lord 
Shelburne  was  against  that,  and  Charles  Fox  spoke  against  it  at 
the  Westminster  Committee,  but  it  is  likely  that  the  committees 
will  be  even  for  annual  parliaments." 

March  21.  On  Fullarton's  attacking  and  naming  Lord  Shel- 
burne, "  he  was  called  to  order  by  Charles  Fox,  for  naming  per- 
sons, and  for  referring  to  debates  of  another  House.  Mr.  Rigby 
said  he  was  surprised  to  hear  Mr.  Fox  make  those  objections,  who 
was  so  apt  to  do  the  same,  and  had  named  Lord  Hillsborough  for 
what  he  had  said  in  the  other  House." 

March  24.  On  notice  being  taken  of  Fullarton's  duel  with 
Lord  Shelburne,  and  Rigby's  deprecating  the  introduction  of 
names  into  debates,  "  Fox  declared  warmly  that  he  would  not  be 
precluded  from  the  freedom  of  debate,  and  that  when  the  Extra- 
ordinaries  of  the  army  should  come  on,  he  should  name  Mr. 
FuUarton  if  he  found  it  necessary." 

The  correspondence  of  the  King  at  this  time  evinces  the  same 
desire  of  Lord  North  to  retire,  and  the  same  resolute  will  of  the 
King  to  continue  the  American  war,  and  to  maintain  Lord  North 
in  office,  as  the  most  convenient  tool  for  that  purpose.  Thus,  on 
the  7th  of  March,  1780,  the  King  writes  to  Lord  North  :  "  I  can 
never  suppose  this  country  so  lost  to  all  ideas  of  self-importance 
as  to  be  willing  to  grant  American  independence.  If  that  word 
be  ever  universally  adopted,  I  shall  despair  of  this  country  being 
preserved  from  a 'state  of  inferiority.  I  hope  never  to  see  that 
day,  for,  however  I  am  treated,  I  must  love  this  country."  [On 
the  19  th  of  May,  on  some  fresh  expression  from  Lord  North  of 
his  desire  to  be  released  from  office,  he  says  :]  "  You  cannot  be 
surprised  at  my  real  sorrow  in  seeing  you  persist  in  the  idea  that 
your  health  will  not  permit  you  to  remain  in  your  present  situa- 
tion. Had  I  the  power  of  oratory,  or  the  pen  of  an  Addison,  I 
could  say  no  more  than  what  I  can  convey  in  the  few  following 
lines :  viz.,  that  I  am  conscious,  if  you  will  resolve  with  spirit  to 
continue  in  your  present  employment,  that  with  the  assistance  of 
a  new  Parliament  I  shall  be  able  to  keep  the  present  constitution 
in  its  pristine  lustre — that  there  is  no  means  of  letting  you  retire 


202  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  31. 

from  taking  the  lead  that  will  not  probably  end  in  evil,  and, 
therefore,  till  I  see  things  change  to  a  more  favorable  situation,  I 
shall  not  think  myself  at  liberty  to  grant  your  request.  You 
must  be  the  judge  whether  you  can  honorably  desert  me  when 
infallible  ruin  must  ensue.^' 

[What  was  the  infallible  ruin  the  King  apprehended  ?  The 
independence  of  America.  AYhat  was  the  Ministry  he  was  so 
anxious  to  maintain  ?  Hear  the  description  of  it  given  by  one  of 
its  members.  Lord  Grower,  in  a  conversation  with  Lord  North,  by 
him  communicated  to  the  King,  and  corroborated  by  his  own  ad- 
mission of  the  truth  of  the  description]  :  ^'  Lord  Gower  came  to 
Lord  North  to  inform  him  that  he  had  long  felt  the  utmost  un- 
easiness at  the  situation  of  his  Majesty's  affairs;  that  nothing  can 
be  so  weak  as  the  Government ;  that  nothing  is  done  ;  that  there 
was  no  discipline  in  the  state,  the  army,  or  the  navy ;  and  that 
impending  ruin  must  be  the  consequence  of  the  present  system  of 
government;  that  he  thought  himself  obliged,  as  well  in  conscience 
as  in  wisdom,  to  desire  an  immediate  dismissal  from  his  employ- 
ment; that  he  had  no  connection  with  any  of  the  members  of  the 
Opposition,  which  he  thought  as  wicked  as  the  Administration  is 
weak ;  that  nothing  can  afford  the  least  hope  but  a  coalition,  and 
he  is  afraid  that  even  that  remedy  may  be  too  late ;  that  he  feels 
the  greatest  gratitude  for  the  many  marks  of  royal  goodness  which 
he  has  received,  but  that  he  does  not  think  it  the  duty  of  a  faithful 
servant  to  endeavor  to  preserve  a  system  whidi  must  end  in  the 
ruin  of  his  Majesty  and  of  the  country.  He  is  determined  never 
again  to  take  office,  but  to  support  Government  in  his  private 
capacity.  Lord  North  thinks  that  Lord  Gower's  resignation  at 
the  present  moment  must  be  the  ruin  of  Administration.  In  Lord 
North's  arguments  with  Lord  Gower,  Lord  North  owns  that  he 
had  certainly  one  disadvantage,  which  is,  that  he  holds  in  his 
heart,  and  has  held  for  these  three  years,  just  the  same  opinion 
with  Lord  Gower."  [What  were  the  redeeming  qualities  that  not 
only  reconciled  the  King  to  an  Administration  so  weak  and  inef- 
ficient, but  made  him  strain  every  nerve  to  retain  them  in  office  ? 
They  acquiesced  in  his  will,  and  supported  him  in  his  determina- 


1780.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  203 

tion  to  continue  the  war  with  America  till  the  revolted  colonies 
were  reduced  again  to  obedience.  We  must  lament  the  weakness 
while  we  enter  into  the  chivalrous  feelings  of  Lord  North,  which 
induced  him,  in  opposition  to  his  better  judgment,  not  to  abandon 
a  master  who  expressed  for  him  such  confidence,  affection,  and 
regard.]  "^I  must  again  disagree  from  the  opinions  of  Lord  Hol- 
land and  Mr.  Allen.  The  King  held  that  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  independence  of  America  would  place  this  country  in  a 
state  of  inferiority,  and  be  tantamount  to  its  ruin  as  a  great  and 
powerful  state.  Lord  Chatham  had  held  an  opinion  very  similar 
to  this.  Lord  Shelburne,  following  his  leader,  said  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  that  when  America  became  independent,  the  sun  of 
England  would  set.  The  Sovereign  was  only  blamable  for  the 
obstinacy  with  which  he  clung  to  an  opinion  entertained  by  some 
of  the  most  sagacious  and  eminent  of  his  subjects.  Lord  North's 
position  was  different ;  he  was  disposed  to  conciliate  America,  had 
sent  commissioners  for  that  purpose,  and  was  quite  ready  to  con- 
sent to  peace.  For  three  years  he  had  been  of  opinion  that  his 
own  Ministry  was  feeble,  and  would  effect  no  good  purpose.  Why, 
then,  did  he  remain  ?  To  carry  into  effect  the  personal  wishes 
of  the  Sovereign,  which  he  preferred  to  the  welfare  of  the  state. 
This  may  be  Toryism,  but  it  is  not  patriotic ;  still  less  is  it  con- 
stitutional conduct."^' — J.  R. 

April  5.  "Another  very  memorable  day.  In  the  morning, 
Charles  Fox  harangued  the  petitioners  of  Westminster  in  the  hall, 
and  was  exceedingly  severe  on  the  King  and  the  present  reign, 
and  declared  loudly  for  annual  parliaments  and  the  additional  100 
knights,  which  were  eagerly  adopted  by  the  assembly.  The  Court 
had  expected  that  Fox  would  be  afffended  to  the  House  by  a  great 
mob,  and  the  Guards  were  ordered  to  be  in  readiness,  but  he 
went  privately  as  usual,  and  there  was  not  the  least  tumult." 

"In  Committee  of  Commons,  Dunning  opened  the  debate  by 
a  motion,  '  That  the  Influence  of  the  Crown  has  increased,  is  in- 
creasing, and  ought  to  be  diminished/  The  ministers  were  great- 
ly embarrassed,  and  had  no  subterfuge  but  their  old  hackneyed 
evasion,  which  could  only  serve  in  times  when  they  were  para- 


204  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  31. 

mountj  the  ^  previous  question/  which  not  being  admitted  in  a 
Committee  (for  no  earthly  good  reason),  they  recurred  to  its  tanta- 
mount, of  the  chairman's  leaving  the  chair,  too  notoriously  imply- 
ing they  did  not  mean  to  comply  with  the  petitioners.  But  this 
was  not  a  moment  to  endure  such  poor  shifts.'^ 

"  The  Ministry,  like  the  Jesuits,  seemed  to  have  lost  their  un- 
derstandings when  they  had  most  occasion  for  them,  and  Lord  North, 
supported  only  by  his  Scotch  champions,  Wedderburne  and  the 
Lord  Advocate  [Dundas],  was  not  able  to  contest  such  numerous 
and  violent  attacks.  The  Lord  Advocate  at  last  produced  a  paltry 
palliative,  by  adding  to  the  cjuestion,  ^  It  is  now  necessary  to  declare 
that  the  injiuencej  &c.,  to  which  he  said  he  meant  to  give  his 
negative,  but  instead  of  dividing  on  whether  these  words  should 
stand  part  of  the  question,  as  Dundas  expected  would  be  the 
case,  Charles  Fox  said  he  had  no  objection  to  the  words,  and 
they  being  admitted,  Dunning's  motion,  after  a  very  hot  debate, 
was  carried  at  midnight  by  233  to  251.'^ 

On  another  motion  of  Thomas  Pitt,  that  ^^  it  was  the  duty  of 
the  House  to  procure  immediate  redress  to  the  grievances  mentioned 
in  the  petitions,  Charles  Fox,  then  so  late  and  though  very  unusual, 
moved  to  report  the  motions  directly  to  the  House ;  Lord  North 
exclaimed  loudly  against  such  proceedings  as  violent,  arbitrary,  and 
unusual.'' 

April  24.  A  motion  of  Dunning's  against  dissolution  or  pro- 
rogation was  lost  by  254  to  203,  '^  most  of  the  Tories,  who  had 
deserted  to  the  Opposition,  returniug  to  vote  with  the  Court, 
particularly  Sir  Roger  Newdigate,  who  had  owned  he  hated  the 
Opposition,  but  preferred  knaves  to  fools.  Charles  Fox  abused 
them  after  the  division,  and  said  the  House  had  broken  its  pro- 
mise to  the  petitioners,  and  it  would  be  better  to  secede )  but  his 
friend  Dunning  would  try  one  question  more." 

April  28.  "  In  one  of  these  debates,  Lord  Gr.  Gordon  took 
notice  that  the  rejection  of  Contractors'  bill  had  made  no  im- 
pression. It  was  very  true.  Charles  Fox  had  been  at  Newmarket 
instead  of  applying  to  it,  and  the  country  took  no  notice  of  it." 

May    6.  "  General  Conway  moved   for  a   ^  bill  for  pacifying 


1780.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  205 

America.'  Opposition  only  part  for  it.  Hartley  and  Sir  Gr.  Sa- 
vile  preferred  a  plan  for  recalling  troops.  Charles  Fox  supported 
Conway  warmly  j  Lord  Gr.  Germaine  and  Lord  North  opposed  him. 
Eden  moved  previous  question,  and  it  was  carried  by  123  to  61. 
Conway  was  very  severe  on  the  bench  of  Bishops  for  dipping  so 
deep  in  blood,  and  Charles  Fox  much  more  so.'' 

May  8.  ^' Sawbridge  moved  for  triennial  parliaments;  Burke 
peclared  strongly  against  them,  and  said  he  desired  his  constituents 
should  know  his  opinion  ;  Fox  for  them — rejected  by  182  to  90 ; 
great  dissensions  at  this  time  on  that  question  between  Lord  Shel- 
burne  and  Burke. 

May  26.  "  Mr.  Dunning  moved  for  a  report  from  the  commit- 
tee of  April  6,  which  had  never  been  made.  Bigby  attacked 
Charles  Fox — said  when  the  petitions  had  been  reported  at  the 
several  assizes,  he  supposed  the  country  gentlemen  had  told  their 
constituents  they  must  choose  between  Lord  North  and  Charles 
Fox,  and  they  had  preferred  the  former,  and  that  the  next  Parlia- 
ment would  be  still  more  for  the  Court  than  the  present.  How- 
ever, he  was  not  tender  to  Lord  North,  particularly  on  the  Ameri- 
can war,  which  he  said  he  knew  from  being  Pcxymaster  could  not 
be  carried  on.  Charles  Fox  told  him  that  if  he  was  in  Lord 
North's  place  he  should  not  be  much  obliged  to  him  for  such 
support." 

In  the  beginning  of  June  there  is  an  account  of  Lord  Gr.  Gror- 
don's  riots,  in  the  course  of  which  there  is  no  mention  of  Mr.  Fox 
in  Walpole's  journal. 

June  20.  "  In  the  Commons,  resolutions  that  all  the  penal  laws 
against  Papists  not  repealed  were  in  full  force.  Sir  G.  Savile 
promised  a  bill  against  their  educating  Protestants  in  their  schools, 
and  did  bring  it  in.  Burke  spoke  well  but  too  passionately  against 
repeal ;  attacked  the  dissenters,  but  said  the  worthiest  Presby- 
terians had  not  signed  the  petition,  declared  he  himself  had  been 
hronght  up  hy  an  Anahaptist  teacher.  Charles  Fox  made  one  of 
his  finest  speeches  against  a  repeal,  only  Sir  Joseph  Mawbey  gave 
a  negative  to  the  resolutions  as  they  wore  meant  in  lieu  of  a 
repeal." 

VOL.  I. — 18 


206  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  31. 

[The  disgraceful  riot^  in  June,  1780,  by  the  general  panic  they 
diffused,  gave  strength  to  the  Government,  and  Lord  North  seems 
to  have  availed  himself  of  the  occasion  to  make  fresh  overtures  to 
Lord  Rockingham  through  BIr.  Frederick  Montague.  Two  ac- 
counts of  this  negotiation  have  been  preserved,  the  one  among 
Lord  North's  papers,  the  other  in  a  letter  from  Col.  Fitzpatrick  to 
his  brother.  Lord  Ossory.] 

[A  memorandum  among  Lord  North^s  papers  entitled  "  Minutes 
of  Conversation  with  Mr.  Montague''  seems  to  contain  the  hints  or 
instructions  given  to  that  gentleman  before  he  commenced  his 
negotiation.]  '^  No  difficulty  about  Dukes  of  Portland  and  Man- 
chester, Mr.  Townshend,  Mr.  Burke,  and  Mr.  Fox,  but  Lord 

advises  that  Mr.  Fox  should  at  first  be  proposed  for  an  office  that 
would  not  lead  immediately  to  the  closet.  Some  parts  of  the  Duke 
of  Richmond's  conduct,  which  his  Majesty  thinks  meant  as  per- 
sonal affronts,  would  occasion  some  small  difficulty  with  respect  to 
his  grace,  and  the  prejudice  must  be  removed  by  the  duke's  con- 
duct before  he  can  be  proposed  for  any  considerable  office." 

[The  propositions  of  Opposition,  as  understood  by  Mr.  Mon- 
tague, were :] 

1st.  The  American  war  requires  no  discussion,  as  they  did  not 
see  how  the  troops  could  be  recalled  from  thence,  and  the  de- 
pendence of  America  need  not  at  2}resent  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion. 

2dly.  That  some  public  measures  must  be  admitted,  to  enable 
them  to  coalesce  with  reputation,  such  as  Mr.  Crewes's  Bill,  the 
Contractors'  Bill,  and  a  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  Mr.  Burke's  Bill. 

3dly.  Lord  Rockingham  did  not  want  office ;  to  offer  the  Duke 
of  Richmond ;  and  Mr.  Fox,  to  be  considered  on  this  occasion. 

4thly.  The  Dukes  of  Portland  and  Manchester,  Messrs.  Towns- 
hend and  Burke. 

5thly.  No  objection  to  any  one  remaining  in  office,  but  Lord 
Sandwich. 

[The  remarks  made  by  the  King  on  these  propositions  most 
probably  put  an  end  to  the  negotiation.]  "  The  evasive  answer 
about  America  will  by  no  means  answer.     Indeed,  upon  all  con- 


1780.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  207 

stitutional  points,  the  Opposition  have  run  so  wild,  that  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  those  who  come  into  office  to  give  assurances 
that  they  do  not  mean  to  be  hampered  by  the  tenants  they  have 
held  during  their  opposition.  The  second  proposition  is,  therefore, 
quite  inadmissible. 

"  The  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Mr.  Fox  have,  more  avowedly 
than  any  others  of  the  Rockingham  party,  dipped  themselves,  for 
they  have  added,  shortening  the  duration  of  Parliaments  ;  and  the 
former,  by  a  strange  conceit  of  changing  the  whole  mode  and  right 
of  election,  would  materially  alter  the  constitution.  This,  added 
to  his  unremitted  personal  ill  conduct  to  me,  it  cannot  be  expected 
that  I  should  express  any  wish  of  seeing  him  in  my  service.  Per- 
sons must  atone  for  their  faults  before  I  can  attempt  to  forgive 
them.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  has  not  put  his  foot  into  my  apart- 
ments for  seven  years,  but,  not  content  with  this,  sent  me  a  mes- 
sage by  Lord  Weymouth,  that  though  he  never  came  near  to  me, 
he,  as  a  Lieutenant-G-eneral,  asked  my  leave  to  go  to  France.  As 
to  Mr.  Fox,  if  any  lucrative,  not  ministerial  office,  can  be  pointed 
out  for  him,  provided  he  will  support  the  Ministry,  I  shall  have 
no  objection  to  the  proposition.  He  never  had  any  principle,  and 
can,  therefore,  act  as  his  interest  may  guide  him. 

"  The  Duke  of  Portland  I  should  loith  pleasure  see  in  my  ser- 
vice. Ireland,  or  any  great  Court  office,  would,  I  hope,  suit  him. 
The  Duke  of  Manchester,  in  a  lucrative  office,  I  should  not  object 
to.     Messrs.  Townshend  and  Burke  would  be  real  acquisitions." 

These  extracts,  from  Lord  North's  papers  and  correspondence, 
prove  the  obstinacy  and  pride  of  George  III.,  and  show  how  in- 
capable he  was  of  appreciating  the  character  or  respecting  the 
feelings  of  superior  or  independent  men ;  but  they  raise  another 
inference,  and  one  more  important  to  the  vindication  of  Mr.  Fox's 
subsequent  conduct.  They  show  that,  between  the  respective 
leaders  of  the  two  parties,  and  especially  between  Lord  North  and 
the  Opposition  party,  there  was  little  diversity  of  principle  or 
opinion,  and  much  less  personal  estrangement  or  animosity,  than 
the  occasional  heat  of  debate  seemed  to  imply.  As  early  as  1778, 
and  up  to  1780,  several  negotiations,  or  half  negotiations,  occurred. 


208  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  \_JETAT.  31. 

From  the  documents,  whicli  substantiate  the  truth  of  them,  it  is 
clear  that  Lord  North  lamented,  as  much  as  his  opponents  cen- 
sured, the  obstinate  perseverance  in  the  American  war,  and  that 
he  equally  lamented,  and  frequently,  though  unsuccessfully,  en- 
deavored to  overcome  the  aversion  of  the  King  to  admit  the  advo- 
cates of  peace,  reform,  or  any  popular  measures  into  his  councils. 
It  follows  there  was  no  dereliction  of  principle  in  men  equally 
disposed,  though  by  different  means,  to  combat  and  control  the 
will  of  one  man  prevailing  over  common  sense,  prudence,  and 
justice,  ultimately  coalescing  for  that  purpose. — V.  H. 

The  letter  of  Colonel  Fitzpatrick  shows  the  light  in  which  this 
last  overture  was  viewed  by  him  and  his  friends. 

MR.  FITZPATRICK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

Juli/,  1780. 
"  Dear  Brother  : — 

^'I  am  not  surprised  you  should  be  curious  about  the  negotiations 
of  which  the  papers  are  so  full.  Charles  not  having  told  me  a 
word  of  the  matter,  for  a  very  foolish  reason,  because  he  thought  I 
should  disapprove.  For  some  time  I  did  not  believe  in  it ;  but 
upon  my  asking  him,  he  told  me  what  foundation  there  had  been 
for  it.  Lord  Rockingham  had  a  message  from  Lord  North  by  F. 
Montague,  intimating  an  inclination  to  make  room  for  them  if 
they  were  willing  to  come  in,  which  was  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive; but  when  they  came  to  particulars,  strong  objections  were 
made  to  Keppel,  to  Charles,  and  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond  (I 
forgot  to  ask  if  the  latter  had  been  consulted).  Whether  they 
were  ever  serious  or  not  I  know  not,  or  whether  they  merely  in- 
tended to  draw  them  into  a  negotiation,  with  a  view  either  to  dis- 
credit them  in  the  public,  or  in  hopes  of  increasing  the  divisions 
of  Opposition,  which,  indeed,  are  now  as  bad  as  possible,  and  I  am 
afraid  will  not  be  mended  by  this  transaction.  I  dined  at  Shel- 
burne  House  yesterday,  and  thought  he  seemed  very  sore  on  the 
subject.  He  told  me  that,  according  to  the  Court  system,  they 
were  sounding  him  at  the  very  moment  they  were  negotiating  with 


1780.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  209 

the  others.  "Whatever  disposition  they  showed  for  coining  in,  the 
appointment  of  Sir  H.  Paliiser  seems  shutting  the  door  in  their 
faces  with  a  vengeance !  Upon  the  whole,  I  think  they  act  a 
ridiculous  figure  enough,  and  I  dare  say  the  King  and  Lord  Sand- 
wich laugh  at  them  heartily.  Lord  Gr.  Gordon,  it  is  said,  will  not 
be  tried  before  November.  Their  conduct  towards  him  seems  very 
suspicious.  The  conduct  of  the  Special  Commission,  and  the 
number  of  executions  and  improper  objects  fixed  upon,  give  general 
disgust.  They  have  done  their  utmost  to  spread  reports  of  a  black 
conspiracy  at  the  bottom  of  it  all,  but  hitherto  without  success. 
The  two  waiters  from  St.  Alban's  Tavern  are  to  make  great  dis- 
coveries, they  say.  As  our  congress  met  at  that  tavern,  I  wonder 
they  don't  invent  some  history  upon  that  subject.  Lord  Lough- 
borough seems  a  good  instrument  for  them  in  the  hanging  way. 
He  is  called  Lord  JuONQ-hourreau  by  the  wits  at  Brookes's.  Charles 
is  not  yet  well,  and  is  advised  going  to  Bath.  He  talks  of  going 
to-morrow,  but  I  am  afraid  he  will  not  conform  to  his  physicians' 
advice ;  and  they  say,  unless  he  lives  very  abstemiously,  the  waters 
will  do  him  more  harm  than  good.  I  hope  when  all  the  rebellious 
women  and  children  are  hanged,  our  camp  will  break  up  :  I  am 
heartily  tired  of  it,  indeed." 

[An  incident,  hardly  worth  notice,  that  occurred  in  the  House 
of  Commons  when  assembled  for  the  first  time  after  the  riots  of 
1780,  deserves  to  be  preserved,  because  it  shows  the  kindly  feel- 
ings of  Mr.  Fox  towards  Lord  North,  while  engaged  in  the  most 
violent  opposition  to  his  government.  It  is  not  mentioned  or 
alluded  to  in  the  Parliamentary  Debates,  but  is  related  in  a  letter 
to  Lord  Holland  from  the  Lord  Chief  Commissioner  Adam,  whose 
recollection  of  it  at  such  a  distance  of  time  shows  what  agreeable 
impression  it  had  made  upon  the  friends  of  Lord  North  when  it 
happened.  On  the  first  meeting  of  Parliament  after  the  riots. 
Lord  North,  after  reprobating  the  outrageous  conduct  of  the  mob, 
boldly  laid  down  the  grounds  of  the  toleration  he  had  extended  to 
the  Roman  Catholics,  and  declared  his  determination  to  act  on 
those  principles.  He  spoke  powerfully,  with  liberality  and  elo- 
quence.    Mr.  Fox  rose  after  him,  applauded  the  liberality,  and 

18^ 


210  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  31. 

expressed  his  admiration  of  the  eloquence,  with  which  he  had 
spoken ;  observing  how  the  true  talents  and  natural  disposition  of 
a  man  broke  forth,  when  relieved  from  the  official  trammels  that 
fettered  and  controlled  his  mind ;  and  then  quoted,  with  prodigious 
effect,  the  lines  from  Milton — 

"As  one  who  long  in  populous  city  pent, 
Where  houses  thick  and  sewers  annoy  the  air, 
Forth  issuing,  on  a  summer's  morn,  to  breathe 
Among  the  pleasant  villages  and  farms 
Adjoin'd,  from  each  thing  met  conceives  delight,"  &c. 

This,  says  Mr.  Adam,  is  my  recollection,  and  I  believe  it  is  a 
pretty  accurate  one,  of  what  passed  near  fifty-four  years  ago.] 

[Parliament  having  been  prorogued  from  the  24th  of  August 
to  the  28th  of  September,  the  dissolution,  which  was  announced 
on  the  1st  of  September,  came  rather  unexpectedly.  Mr.  Fox 
stood  for  Westminster,  and  was  returned  by  a  large  majority  over 
his  competitor.  Lord  Lincoln.  While  preparing  for  the  contest, 
he  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Lord  Ossory]  : — 

HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  LOED  OSSORY. 

"London,  September,  1780. 
"Dear  Ossory  : — 

"We  are  to  have  a  very  sharp  contest  here.  I  wrote  to  the 
Duchess  of  Bedford,  but  have  had  no  answer.  I  hope  you  have 
pressed  her  on  the  subject,  though  I  rather  hope  I  shall  have  her 
votes  even  if  she  does  not  speak  for  me,  provided  she  does  not 
speak  against.  I  wish  you  could  speak  to  her  for  Jack  Towns- 
hend,  in  case  of  Lord  Euston's  giving  up,  which,  I  suppose,  he 
must  do.  But  the  principal  business  of  this  letter  is  to  beg  of 
you  to  come  here  for  Thursday.  I  am  convinced  you  may  serve 
me  very  much,  especially  as  there  is  so  very  great  a  scarcity  of 
gentlemen  here;  indeed  I  think  you  would  be  the  best  person  to 
propose  me  upon  the  hustings.  Pray  come,  if  you  can.  They 
say  Cheese,  the  statuary  in  Piccadilly,  has  some  considerable 
interest;  do  you  know  any  way  of  getting  at  hira  ?     I  hope  to 


1780.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  211 

God  you  will  not  fail  being  at  Cambridge  on  Saturday.  Tlie  best 
thing  you  can  do  is  to  come  here  Wednesday,  stay  Thursday,  and 
go  Friday  to  Cambridge.  Indeed,  I  should  take  your  coming 
here  very  kindly,  and  this  is  not  a  time  to  be  lazy;  everything 
depends  upon  the  choice  of  this  Parliament,  for,  notwithstanding 
the  boast  of  ministers,  it  is  quite  clear  that  we  shall  rather  gain 
than  lose,  which  will  make  the  thing  very  near.     Adieu. 

"  Yours  aiFectionately, 

(Sigued)  *'C.  J.  FOX."  • 

[There  was  a  sharp  contest  for  Westminster,  which  ended  in 
the  return  of  Admiral  Rodney  and  Mr.  Fox,  the  Government 
candidate,  Lord  Lincoln,  having  been  defeated.  On  the  following 
day  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  writes  to  Lord  Ossory :]  "  Charles  is  pretty 
much  knocked  up.  He  was  yesterday  carried  triumphantly  through 
the  whole  town.  Admiral  Young  (proxy  for  Admiral  Rodney, 
who  was  at  sea)  dined  with  us,  which  we  consider  as  an  acknow- 
ledgment that  Rodney  was  more  indebted  to  us  for  support  than 
to  the  Court,  which  was  certainly  true." 

October  9.  ''  Lord  Lincoln  gave  up  the  scrutiny  for  Westminster. 
Charles  Fox  was  returned." 

October  31.  Parliament  met.  "  The  first  day  in  the  Commons 
was  appointed  for  choosing  a  Speaker.  Lord  G.  Germaine  and 
Mr.  Ellis  proposed  Mr.  Cornwall.  Sir  Fletcher  Norton  rose  and 
complained  that  Lord  North  had  not  even  intimated  to  him  that 
he  was  to  be  laid  aside.  Charles  Fox  rose  and  attacked  violently 
Lord  George  Germaine,  who  had  paid  great  compliments  to  Sir 
Fletcher.  Charles  Fox  said  it  was  stabbing  him  in  the  back,  but 
it  was  like  Lord  George's  well-known  cowardice.  He  accused 
Rigby  too  (who  defended  himself)  of  being  an  enemy  of  Sir 
Fletcher,  with  whom  he  had  formerly  had  a  quarrel.  Cornwall 
was  preferred  by  203  to  136." 

November  6.  "  In  the  Commons,  Mr.  De  Gray  and  Sir  Richard 
Sutton  moved  the  Address  on  the  King's  speech.  It  was  opposed 
by  Mr.  T.  Grenville  and  Colonel  Richard  Fitzpatrick.  Charles 
Fox  was  again  very  personal  to  Lord  George  Germaine,  and  said 


212  CORRESPONDENCE    (TF  [^TAT.  31. 

he  was  unfit  to  serve  the  King,  as  he  had  been  declared  so  at  the 
head  of  every  regiment  in  the  late  reign.  Lord  George  said^  he 
despised  personalities  and  those  who  offered  them/^ 

November  14.  "Adam  complained  of  a  severe  advertisement 
from  the  Westminster  Association,  who  said  they  would  guard 
Charles  Fox's  invaluable  life;  as  those  who  attacked  him,  and 
other  patriots  (meaning  also  Fullarton,  who  fought  Lord  Shel- 
burne)  were  sure  of  being  rewarded.  He  was  severe  on  Fox's 
private  life,  and  panegyrized  his  own  virtues,  and  said  they  who 
adopted  such  advertisements  were  infamous.  Fox  made  a  tem- 
perate answer;  denied  having  known  of  the  vote  of  the  Commit- 
tee, and  imputed  it  to  their  zeal  for  him.  Fitzpatrick  said  the 
same  of  his  absence,  but  that  he  approved  the  vote.  'Then,' 
said  Adam,  'he  comes  under  my  description.'  Fitzpatrick  re- 
plied cleverly,  that  he  had  not  applied  the  words  to  Adam,  and, 
if  he  applied  the  words  to  himself,  he  could  not  help  it.  As  they 
stood,  he  did  approve  them." 

"The  Navy  being  moved,  Charles  Fox  fell  severely  on  Lord 
Sandwich,  for  having,  at  that  moment,  set  up  Sir  Hugh  Palliser 
for  Huntingdon.  After  Christmas  he  should  move  for  the  dis- 
mission of  Lord  Sandwich,  and  then  for  bringing  him  to  condign 
punishment  for  his  mismanagement  of  the  navy." 

December  6.  "House  of  Commons  adjourned;  half  Opposition 
had  not  appeared.  Scarce  anybody  but  Charles  Fox  and  T. 
Townshend." 

December  31.  "  Count  "Welderen  went  away  without  taking 
leave,  and  thus  the  year  finished  with  the  outset  of  a  new  war. 
Yet  the  Scotch  had  so  infatuated  and  poisoned  the  nation,  that 
the  Dutch  war  was  popular,  at  least  in  the  city,  where  the  spirit 
of  gaming  had  seized  all  ranks,  and  nothing  was  thought  of  but 
privateering.  The  people  were  told  and  believed  that  the  Oppo- 
sition encouraged  America,  and  that  several  rich  persons  had  been 
ruined  by  sending  money  thither.  The  Opposition  were  all  split 
and  inactive.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  on  one  side.  Lord  Shel- 
burne  and  Lord  Camden  on  the  other,  would  not  come  to  Parlia- 


1781.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  213 

ment.     And  the  Government  which  had  precipitated  us  into  all 
these  calamities,  and  achieved  nothing,  were  more  popular/' 


1781. 

February  1.  "Charles  Fox's  motion  to  censure  the  nomina- 
tion of  Sir  Hugh  Palliser  to  government  of  Greenwich  Hospital. 
His  panegyric  on  General  Conway — Governor  Johnstone's  artful 
but  severe  speech  against  Keppel  and  the  illuminators — House 
sat  till  three  in  the  morning — Motion  rejected  by  214  to  149." 

February  19.  "A  conversation  of  severity  on  Admiral  Darby's 
havins  declined  the  French  fleet,  Mr.  Fox  added  that  he 
had  heard  that  Governor  Johnstone  had  sent  from  Portsmouth, 
whither  he  was  gone  to  sail  with  the  grand  fleet  for  the  relief  of 
Gibraltar,  a  complaint  to  Lord  Hillsborough  that  the  fleet  was  in 
a  rotten  condition,  and  not  fit  to  sail.  Not  one  Minister  denied 
it;  but  next  day  it  was  given  out  that  Johnstone  had  only  com- 
plained of  one  ship  not  being  ready  at  the  time  it  had  been  pro- 
mised." 

February  26.  "  Mr.  Burke's  renewed  bill  for  reduction  of 
Civil  List  was  read  a  second  time,  and  rejected  by  233  to  190. 
Lord  Shelburne's  friends  did  not  attend  it.  The  young  men  in 
Opposition  made  a  considerable  figure,  particularly  John  Towns- 
hend  [second  son  to  the  Viscount],  and  Sheridan  [manager  of  the 
theatre],  both  intimate  friends  of  Charles  Fox,  and  William  Pitt 
[younger  son  of  the  great  Lord  Chatham],  who,  Lord  North  de- 
clared, made  the  best^irsi  speech  he  ever  heard." 

Mr.  Pitt's  first  speech,  brilliant  and  wonderful  as  it  was,  was 
scarcely  more  remarkable  than  the  warmth  and  generosity  with 
which  Mr.  Fox  greeted  the  appearance  and  extolled  the  perform- 
ance of  his  future  rival.  Incapable  of  jealousy,  and  delighted  at 
the  sudden  display  of  talents  nearly  equal  to  his  own,  he  hurried 
up  to  the  young  member  to  compliment  and  encourage  him.  As 
he  was  doing  so,  an  old  member  of  the  House  (I  think  a  General 
Grant)  passed  by  them  and  said,  "  Ay,  Mr.  Fox,  you  are  praising 
young  Pitt  for  his  speech.     You  may  well  do  so;  for,  excepting 


214  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [mTAT.  32. 

yourself,  there's  no  man  in  the  House  can  make  such  another; 
and,  old  as  I  am,  T  expect  and  hope  to  hear  you  both  battling  it 
•within  these  walls  as  I  have  done  your  fathers  before  you/'  Mr. 
Fox,  disconcerted  at  the  awkward  turn  of  the  compliment,  was 
silent  and  looked  foolish;  but  young  Pitt,  with  great  delicacy, 
readiness,  and  felicity  of  expression,  answered,  "  I  have  no  doubt, 
general,  you  would  like  to  attain  the  age  of  Methusaleh."  He 
had  not,  however,  to  live  so  very  long  to  see  his  prediction  ful- 
filled. Till  the  unfortunate  breach  between  the  Whigs  and  Lord 
Shelburne,  when  Mr.  Pitt  sided  with  the  latter,  Mr.  Fox  never 
lost  an  opportunity  of  extolling  the  talents  and  praising  the  con- 
duct of  young  Pitt ;  and  Sir  Samuel  Komilly,  who  was  in  the  gal- 
lery when  he  made  his  second  speech,  writes,  in  a  private  letter 
to  Mr.  Roget,  dated  11th  January,  1782:  ^^  Fox,  in  an  exagge- 
rated strain  of  panegyric,  said  he  could  no  longer  lament  the  loss 
of  Lord  Chatham,  for  he  was  again  living  in  his  son,  with  all  his 
virtues  and  all  his  talents."  (See  Romilly's  Corresi:>ondence,  vol. 
i.  p.  192.) — V.  H. 

March  26.  On  Sir  Gr.  Savile's  motion  for  inquiry  on  the  loan, 
"  Charles  Fox  most  severe  on  Lord  North." 

April.  Lord  North  moved  for  a  secret  committee  on  miscar- 
riages in  East  Indies.  ^^  Burke,  Charles  Fox,  and  others,  con- 
tended for  its  being  only  a  select  committee.  Fox,  in  one  of  his 
capital  speeches,  was  most  justly  severe  on  Lord  North,  for  incit- 
ing inquiries  into  the  conduct  of  others  and  preventing  all  scrutiny 
into  his  own,  which  had  brought  so  many  disgraces  and  losses  on 
us.  He  arraigned,  too,  the  pusillanimity  of  a  late  proclamation, 
in  which  we  submitted  to  a  neutrality  in  the  Baltic,  if  the  French 
did  not  attack  us  there.  The  secret  committee  was  preferred  by 
134  to  80." 

May.  In  the  debate  on  Sir  George  Savile's  motion  to  refer 
the  county  petitions  to  a  committee  of  the  whole  House,  "  Charles 
Fox  shone  transcendently,  and  drew  a  picture  of  the  Chancellor, 
like  an  enraged  bull,  tossing,  wounding,  trampling  on  the  rest  of 
Ministers  whom  he  despised." 

May  17.    Horace  Walpole  writes  to  Sir  Horace  Mann:  '^  Late- 


1781.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  215 

ness  of  hours  is  the  principal  feature  of  the  times,  and  certainly 
demands  no  stress  of  invention.  Every  fashionable  place  is  still 
crowded — no  instance  of  selection  neither.  Gaming  is  yet  gene- 
ral, though  money,  the  principal  ingredient,  does  not  abound.  My 
old  favorite  game,  ^  faro,'  is  lately  revived.  I  have  played  but 
twice,  and  not  all  night,  as  I  used  to  do.  It  is  not  decent  to  end 
where  one  began,  nor  to  sit  up  with  a  generation  by  two  descents 
my  juniors.  Mr.  Fox  is  the  first  figure  in  all  the  places  I  have 
mentioned ;  the  hero  in  Parliament,  at  the  gaming-table,  at  New- 
market. Last  week,  he  passed  twenty-four  hours  without  inter- 
ruption at  all  three,  or  on  the  road  from  the  one  to  the  othei',  and 
ill  the  whole  time,  for  he  has  a  bad^  constitution,  and  treats  it  as 
if  he  had  been  dipped  in  the  immortal  river ;  but  I  doubt  at  least 
his  heel  will  be  vulnerable." 

June.  "About  this  time,  William  Pitt,  second  son  of  the  great 
Lord  Chatham,  made  a  most  shining  figure  in  Opposition." 

"  Charles  Fox,  seconded  by  Lord  Nugent,  obtained  leave  to 
bring  in  a  bill  to  repeal  the  Marriage  Act." 

June  11.  "On  bill  for  obliging  public  accountants  to  pay  the 
balance  in  their  hands  into  the  Treasury,  T.  Townshend  and 
Charles  Fox  very  severe  on  Lord  North's  indolence  and  eagerness 
to  get  hold  of  public  money.  The  latter  (Charles  Fox)  vindicated 
his  father  as  Paymaster,  and  attacked  Higby  on  his  last  year's 
inclination  to  quarrel  with  Lord  North,  and  his  time-serving  since, 
for  fear  of  being  attacked  as  Paymaster." 

June  12.  "  Mr.  Fox's  motion  for  a  committee  to  consider  the 
American  War.  He  showed  the  utter  impossibility  of  subduing 
America  from  Lord  Cornwallis's  last  dispatches  in  the  Gazette. 
Sir  Thomas  Clarges,  who  had  constantly  voted  with  Administra- 
tion, declared  he  had  been  deceived  by  them,  and  would  support 
them  no  longer.     Rigby,  in  answer  to  Charles  Fox  the  preceding 

*  Why  he  says  his  constitution  was  a  bad  one  I  cannot  divine ;  I  shonld 
say  nearly  the  strongest  I  ever  knew,  and  it  was  the  constant  joke  of  his 
less  fortunate  friends,  especially  Hare,  that  he  did  not  know  what  sick- 
ness was,  and  imagined  a  spoonful  of  rhubarb  to  be  a  cure  for  all  the  ills 
that  could  befall  the  human  body. — V.  H. 


216  CORRESPT)NDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  32. 

day,  affirmed  that  every  man  of  consequence  had,  at  one  time  or 
other,  voted  for  the  American  war,  and  that  to  declare  for  peace 
now  would  be  to  encourage  France.  The  motion  was  rejected  by 
172  to  99." 

June  15.  "  Charles  Fox  carried  the  commitment  of  his  bill 
for  repealing  the  Marriage  Act,  by  90  to  27.  Mr.  Courtney  made 
a  much-admired  speech  for  the  repeal." 

June  20.  "Sold  by  auction  the  library  of  Charles  Fox,  which 
had  been  taken  in  execution.^  Amongst  the  books  was  Mr.  Gib- 
bon's first  volume  of  Roman  History,  which  appeared  by  the  title- 
page  to  have  been  given  by  the  author  to  Mr.  Fox,  who  had  writ- 
ten in  it  the  following  anecdote  :  '  The  author,  at  Brookes' s,  said 
there  was  no  salvation  for  this  country  till  six  heads  of  the  princi- 
pal persons  in  the  xldministration  were  laid  on  the  table ;  eleven 
days  after,  the  same  gentleman  accepted  the  place  of  Lord  of  Trade, 
under  those  very  Ministers,  and  has  acted  with  them  ever  since  !' 
Such  was  the  avidity  of  bidders  for  the  smallest  production  of  so 
wonderful  a  genius,  that  by  the  addition  of  this  little  record  the 
book  sold  for  three  guineas." 

June  15.  "  Great  altercations  in  both  Houses  on  the  peculiar 
severity  to  American  prisoners,  on  complaints  of  Charles  Fox  and 
the  Duke  of  Richmond.  The  Lord  Advocate  [Dundas]  was 
grossly  abusive  on  the  Opposition  for  supporting  rebels,  and 
against  Charles  Fox,  who  had  been  as  bitter  on  the  Scotch  for  hav- 
ing formerly  committed  so  many  rebellions ;  Lord  Loughborough 
as  angry  at  the  Duke  of  Richmond  for  reflecting  on  the  poverty  of 
Scotland.  Both  motions  were  rejected.  The  Chancellor  [Thur- 
low],  who  took  every  opportunity  of  differing  with  ministers,  par- 

*  There  was  a  trial  in  the  Common  Pleas,  before  the  sale  of  these  books, 
to  establish  Mr.  Fox's  proi:»erty  in  them.  The  note  quoted  in  the  text, 
being  in  Mr.  Fox's  handwriting,  was  offered  in  proof,  and  Lord  Lough- 
borough (not  perhaps  over-anxious  to  screen  his  political  enemy's  pro- 
perty from  seizure)  was  on  the  point  of  admitting  the  evidence,  but  when, 
on  glancing  his  eye  over  the  words  inserted,  he  found  they  would  expose 
his  friend  Mr.  Gibbon,  friendship,  favor,  good-nature,  or  a  recollection 
of  the  law,  made  him  reject  the  evidence  as  inadmissible. —V.  H. 


1781.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  217 

ticularly  Lords  Batlmrst  and  Sandwichj  and  indeed  with  every- 
body, took  no  part  against  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  when  the 
alterations  in  the  Marriage  Bill  came  from  the  other  House,  he 
paid  the  highest  compliments  to  Charles  Fox,  the  author,  though 
he  opposed  its  being  decided  so  very  late  in  the  session,  and  it  was 
rejected." 

July  18.  Parliament  rose. 

Mr.  Pox  had  not  gained  in  the  mind  of  the  King.  [In  a  note 
to  Lord  North,  he  animadverted  on  the  motion  Mr.  Pox  made  at 
the  beginning  of  the  session,  against  Sir  Hugh  Palliser,  in  words 
that  deserve  to  be  recorded,  as  evidence  of  the  unfavorable  impres- 
sion he  had  formed  and  still  retained  of  a  man  who  was  destined, 
within  less  than  eighteen  months,  to  be  one  of  his  principal  Secre- 
taries of  State.]  "The  question  proposed  by  Mr.  Fox,  about  the 
appointment  of  Sir  Hugh  Palliser  to  the  government  of  Green- 
wich Hospital,  was  unjust  and  indecent,  as  every  tiling  that  comes 
from  that  quarter  must  necessarily  he.^' 

[If  such  was  the  dislike  of  Mr.  Pox,  entertained  by  the  King, 
\t  is  no  less  true  that  Mr.  Fox  had  an  equally  unfavorable  opin- 
--^ion  of  his  Majesty,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  chief,  if  not  the  sole, 
cause  of  all  the  calamities  and  dangers  which  at  that  time  op- 
pressed and  threatened  to  extinguish  us  as  a  nation.]  "  I  agree 
with  you  in  thinking,"  he  writes  to  Pitzpatrick  on  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1781,  "that  the  people  of  this  country  in  general  deserve 
no  pity,  and  certainly  the  King  still  less.  But  is  it  not  a  little 
hard  upon  us,  who  expected  to  play  some  part  upon  the  stage  of 
the  world,  and  who  had  certainly  at  least  the  shares  of  individuals 
in  the  greatness  of  the  country,  to  be  obliged  to  bound  our  hopes, 
nay,  our  wishes,  to  being  able  some  way  or  other  to  heal  the 
wounds  made  by  others,  and  to  put  this  country,  which  was  the 
first  in  Europe,  upon  a  footing  to  be  one  amongst  the  other  nations 
of  the  world  ?  I  dare  say  you  think  even  this  more  than  we  can 
do ;  but  to  those  who  ever  had  any  ambition,  good  Grod  !  what  is 
this  ?  Indeed,  indeed,  it  is  intolerable  to  think  that  it  should  be 
in  the  power  of  one  blockhead  to  do  so  much  mischief.  The  more 
I  think  of  the  whole  of  the  business,  the  more  I  feel  averse  to 
VOL.  I. — 19 


218  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  32. 

coming  in  upon  any  terms,  unless  on  those  of  parliamentary  con- 
demnation of  what  is  past.  Pray,  continue  to  write.  I  cannot 
help  hoping  that  we  may  still  avoid  an  engagement  in  Europe. 
Read  the  speech  of  Richard  Plantagenet  in  '  Henry  VI.'  when 
France  is  lost,  and  if  I  do  not  forget  (for  there  is  no  Shakspeare 
here)  it  is  very  consonant  to  our  feelings  upon  this  wretched  situa- 
tion of  affairs." 

The  spirits  of  the  Ministry  and  their  friends,  which  had  been 
greatly  raised  by  some  successes  in  America,  and  especially  the 
capture  of  Charlestown,  were  again  damped  by  the  surrender  of 
Lord  Cornwallis  and  his  division  as  prisoners  of  war.  Fresh 
courage  was  infused  into  the  Americans,  and  our  last  hopes  of 
conquest  seemed  to  be  fast  vanishing  away. 

On  November  26,  H.  Walpole  says  to  Sir  Horace  Mann  : 
^'  The  warmth  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  prodigiously  rekindled; 
but  Lord  Cornwallis's  fate  has  lost  the  Administration  no  ground 
there.  The  two  names  of  most  eclat  in  the  Opposition  are  two 
names  to  which  those  walls  have  been  much  accustomed  at  the 
same  period — Charles  Fox,  and  William  Pitt,  second  son  of  Lord 
Chatham.  Eloquence  is  the  only  one  of  our  brilliant  qualities  that 
does  not  seem  to  have  degenerated  rapidly." 

November  27.  "  The  House  of  Commons  was  as  tenacious  of 
pensions  and  places,  and  after  a  debate  that  lasted  till  two,  the 
same  amendment  [as  was  moved  in  Lords]  failed  by  the  votes  of 
218  to  229.  The  attack  was  made  chiefly  on  Lord  G.  Germaine 
and  Lord  Sandwich,  and,  indeed,  even  by  the  former  on  the  latter, 
insomuch  that  Mr.  Fox  said  he  intended  to  impeach  the  Earl,  and 
should  depend  on  Lord  George  as  his  principal  evidence." 

November  28.  On  the  report,  "a  more  remarkable  though 
shorter  debate,  Mr.  W.  Pitt  made  a  most  brilliant  figure  to  the 
admiration  of  all  sides;  but  the  Lord  Advocate  [Dundas]  occasioned 
most  surprise.  Affecting  great  frankness,  he  seemed  to  adopt  the 
language  of  Opposition,  who  both  then  and  the  day  before  had  called 
on  Ministers  to  declare  whether  they  meant  to  persist  in  the  war 
in  America.  He  seemed  to  accuse  Ministers  of  disunion,  and  to 
blame  some  who  did  not  in  council  deliver  their  sincere  opinions; 


1781.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  219 

but  the  day  was  at  hand,  he  said,  that  would  force  them  to  speak 
out.  With  all  this  air  of  frankness,  few  knew  what  he  meant 
or  whom  he  meant  to  blame;  and  the  more  he  was  pressed,  the 
more  obscure  and  shuffling  he  grew.  Charles  Fox  did  urge  him 
home  to  declare  whom  he  blamed,  and  what  the  day  was  that 
was  to  extort  truth.  He  immediately  said,  ^he  did  not  impute 
any  guilt  to  Lord  North.'  Fox  as  immediately  said,  it  was  kind 
to  except  Lord  North,  for  everybody's  eyes  had  been  turned  on 
him.  But  the  Advocate  evaded  all  further  reply,  and  would  only 
say  that  the  decision  would  be  made  when  the  vote  of  the  Army 
should  come  in  question." 

"  The  King,  as  if  he  had  never  used  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  ill, 
opened  his  mind  to  him  on  his  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  his 
other  brother,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  the  latter  of  whom,  he 
said,  was  governed  by  Charles  Fox  and  Fitzpatrick,  and  governed 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  whom  they  wanted  to  drive  into  Opposition. 
^  When  we  hunt  together,'  said  the  King,  ^  neither  my  son  nor  my 
brother  will  speak  to  me;  and  lately,  when  the  chase  ended  at  a 
little  village  where  there  was  but  a  single  post-chaise  to  be  hired, 
my  son  and  brother  got  into  it,  drove  to  London,  and  left  me  to 
get  home  in  a  cart,  if  I  could  find  one.'  He  complained,  too, 
that  the  Prince,  when  invited  to  dine  with  him,  came  an  hour  too 
late,  and  ^all  the  servants  saw  the  father  waiting  an  hour  for  the 
son.' "  T 

December  10.  '^A  great  meeting  of  Westminster  voters  in 
Westminster  Hall,  to  consider  of  a  petition  similar  to  the  City's; 
it  was  moved  by  Charles  Fox,  and  approved,  but  with  the  utmost 
tranquillity,  for  the  people,  though  in  vast  numbers,  seemed  to  be 
perfectly  indifferent,  and  to  have  assembled  only  from  curiosity. 
Yet  the  Court,  fearing  or  hoping  a  tumult,  had  a  large  body  of 
Gruards  in  readiness." 

December  11  "was  the  day  for  voting  the  Army,  when  the 
Lord  Advocate  had  declared  the  Ministers  would  be  forced  to  speak 
out.  A  few  days  before,  Charles  Fox  asked  him  whether  the 
Ministers  would  speak  out  then?  That  honest  man  said,  ^I  believe 
notj  hut  do  press  them.'  " 


220  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  32. 

Then  follows  some  account  of  Sir  James  Lowther's  motion 
against  ^' any  further  attempts  in  America,"  Lord  North's  answer, 
Dunning's  reply.  "The  Lord  Advocate  pretended  to  understand 
Lord  North  as  declaring  against  a  land  war ;  Charles  Fox  pressed 
Lord  North  over  and  over  again  to  say  if  that  was  his  meaning,  but 
he  would  not  say  a  word  more.  Lord  Gr.  Germaine  talked  of  the 
unanimity  of  Ministers,  but  no  mortal  believed  him.  Burke  made  a 
wild,  passionate  speech.  He  was  now  grown  so  heated,  and  uttered 
such  rhapsodies,  that  he  was  generally  very  ill  heard."  "  The 
motion  was  rejected  but  by  a  majority  of  forty-one." 

December  14.  Another  remarkable  debate  on  Army,  in  which 
Pitt  made  a  speech,  "  with  amazing  logical  abilities,  exceeding  all 
he  had  hitherto  shown,  and  making  men  doubt  whether  he  would 
not  prove  superior  even  to  Charles  Fox."  After  an  account  of 
Rigby's  speech  and  motives,  "Walpole  adds  :  "  Mr.  Fox  called  on 
Lord  Advocate  to  speak  out,  as  he  had  promised,  and  said  it 
would  become  his  manly  character.  The  Lord  Advocate  (perhaps 
softened  by  his  Scotch  friends,  or  aware  that  he  had  displeased 
the  King)  replied  angrily,  that  he  would  maintain  his  own  cha- 
racter, and  if  others  looked  to  theirs,  they  would  have  enough 
to  do." 

December  17.  "  Admiral  Kempenfeldt  sent  word  that  he 
had  found  five  more  French  men-of-war,  of  110  or  112  guns, 
than  he  expected,  and  not  venturing  to  attack  so  superior  a 
force,  he  had  retired,  and  the  French  were  proceeding  on  their 
voyage.  Great  alarm  for  the  AYest  Indies.  Great  indignation 
against  Lord  Sandwich,  who  either  had  not  intelligence,  or  had 
sent  Kempenfeldt  with  so  inferior  a  force,  though  we  had  six 
ships  lying  idle  in  the  Downs.  Lord  Rockingham,  Admiral 
Keppel,  and  Charles  Fox  had  said  publicly  that  Lord  Sandwich 
was  mistaken,  and  that  Kempenfeldt  would  have  found  nineteen 
or  twenty  men-of-war  at  Brest.  This  proved  true  what  Lord 
Stormont  had  said,  the  first  day  of  the  session,  that  Lord  Sand- 
wich would  employ  no  cutters  on  intelligence." 

December  20.  "  G.  Byng,  hearing  Sir  Grey  Cooper  propose 
to  adjourn,  cried,  ^  Good  God  !  adjourn  !  we  ought  to  sit  through 


1781.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  221 

the  holidays  to  inquire  into  this  miscarriage,'  T.  Townshend  and 
Charles  Fox  recalled  to  mind  how  during  such  an  adjournment  the 
French  war  had  broken  out.  It  was  agreed  there  should  be  a 
formal  inquiry  after  the  holidays.  Lord  North  pretending  that 
Lord  Sandwich  himself  desired  it." 

After  mentioning  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  motion  to  inquire 
into  Lord  Rawdon's  conduct  in  executing  Haynes,  Horace  Wal- 
pole  relates  what  happened  on  Lord  Rawdon's  return  from  Ire- 
land. He  very  uncharitably  and  groundlessly  suspects  that  Lord 
Rawdon,  in  challenging  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  "  was  secretly 
instigated  to  that  brutality  ;"  and  adds,  "  the  recent  instances  of 
Charles  Fox  and  Lord  Shelburne  challenged  by  Scots,  who  were 
notoriously  set  on  by  other  Scots,  proved  that  indirect  assassina- 
tion was  a  favorite  manoeuvre  of  the  instruments  of  the  Courts 

Nothing  can  be  more  malignant  or  groundless  than  this  insinu- 
ation of  H.  Walpole.  Though  it  is  uncharitable  to  impute  bad 
motives  where  they^annot  be  proved,  it  might  be  admissible  for 
an  impartial  historian,  unacquainted  with  the  individual  charac- 
ters, to  conjecture  that  one  or  more  of  these  persons  might  have 
been  forward  in  challenging  remarkable,  men,  obnoxious  to  the 
Court,  with  a  view  of  pleasing  the  powerful,  as  well  as  of  resent- 
ing an  injury,  real  or  supposed ;  but  that  they  were  base  enough 
to  be  employed  in  such  a  mianoe.uvre^  which  then  might  well  be 
termed  assassination j  or  that  the  King  or  the  gentlemen  compos- 
ing his  Court  or  his  Cabinet  were  capable  of  instigating  such  a 
proceeding,  is  a  supposition  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  charac- 
ter of  the  times  and  of  the  individuals,  and  could  not,  I  think, 
be  sincerely  harbored  by  Horace  Walpole  himself.  Both  Adam 
and  Lord  Moira  were  men  of  high  honor,  of  excellent,  warm,  af- 
fectionate and  kind  feelings.  Walpole's  propensity  to  impute  the 
very  basest  and  most  improbable  motives  to  those  whom  he  dis- 
liked, shakes  one's  confidence  either  in  his  judgment  or  in  his 
integrity,  to  a  degree  that  diminishes  the  value  of  his  long,  labo- 
rious, and  entertaining  journals  and  memoirs. — v.  H. 

[The  pertinacity  with  which  the  King  opposed,  to  the  last 
moment,  the  recognition  of  the  United  States,  and   the  rooted 

19* 


222  CORRESPONDENCE    OT  [iETAT.  33. 

aversion  he  entertained  for  all  who  differed  from  him  on  that 
point,  seem  not  to  have  been  in  the  slightest  degree  abated  by 
the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis  and  his  army.  On  the  26th  of 
December,  1781,  he  consents  to  Lord  George  Germaine's  resigna- 
tion, provided  his  retreat  is  dignified  by  his  elevation  to  the  peer- 
age.] "  No  one  can  then  say  he  is  disgraced ;  and  when  the 
appointment  of  Sir  Guy  Carleton  [Lord  George's  enemy,  who  was 
intended  to  be  sent  a  Commissioner  to  America]  accompanies  his 
retreat,  it  will  be  ascribed  to  its  true  cause,  and  not  to  any  change 
in  my  sentiments  on  the  essential  point,  namely,  the  getting  a 
peace  at  the  expense  of  a  separation  from  America,  which  no  diffi- 
culties can  get  me  to  consent  to.'' 

1782. 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Fox  to  Sir  George  Macartney, 
though  in  itself  unimportant,  may  serve  to  show  the  frank,  easy, 
and  communicative  footing  which,  even  in  the  turmoil  of  politics, 
he  preserved  with  his  early  friends,  who  were  either  indifferent 
or  adverse  to  the  cause  in  which  he  was  so  earnestly  engaged. 

HON.  C.  J.  FOX  TO  SIR  GEORGE  MACARTNEY. 

London,  January  26,  1782. 
'■'-  ]My  dear  Macartney  : — 

"  Among  the  many  recommendations  I  have  made  to  you  since 
your  going  to  India,  there  has  not  been  one  in  which  I  have  been 
so  really  earnest  as  in  favor  of  Mr.  Charles  Forsyth,  who  will  de- 
liver you  this.  He  is  the  natural  son  of  Codrington,  who,  from 
his  acquaintance  with  you,  would  certainly  have  written  to  you 
himself,  if  he  had  not  been  deterred  from  doing  so  by  a  recollec- 
tion of  the  part  he  and  some  of  his  friends  took  with  respect  to 
your  appointment.  I  told  him  I  was  sure  I  knew  enough  of  you 
to  know  that  this  was  an  ill-judged  delicacy;  but  as  he  persisted 
in  it,  I  think  myself  the  more  obliged  to  entreat  of  you  to  do  all 
you  can  with  propriety  do  in  favor  of  this  young  man,  as  his 
father  is  one  of  the  men  in  the  world  for  whom,  upon  long  ac- 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  223 

quaintance,  I  have  the  greatest  esteem.  I  am  sensible  that  I 
have  been  exceedmglj  troublesome  to  you  with  recommendations, 
but  many  of  them  have  been  simple  introductions  and  desires  of 
general  protection,  rather  than  anything  else.  In  this  instance,  I 
do  assure  you,  I  feel  at  least  as  strongly  as  I  write.  "With  regard 
to  everything  here,  I  can  only  say  that  the  situation  of  politics 
grows  every  day  less  intelligible.  It  was  hardly  known,  for  many 
days,  whether  Lord  George  Germaine  was  in  or  out;  and  it  is  still 
as  great  a  secret  as  ever  what  is  to  become  of  the  American  war. 
All  that  is  to  be  clearly  known  is  that  this  country  is  devoted, 
by  the  obstinacy  of  those  who  govern  it  (though  God  knows  who 
they  are),  to  certain  and  inevitable  ruin.  We  are  now  attacking, 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  your  friend  Sandwich,  and  we  shall  be 
very  strong  in  numbers,  and  still  stronger  in  fact  and  reason, 
against  him,  but  not  quite  strong  enough,  I  fear,  to  carry  it. 
With  respect  to  myself,  I  am  very  well  in  health  and  spirits;  and 
having  long  since  given  up  all  hopes  of  things  going  right  in  this 
country,  am  very  little  personally  affected  with  anything  that  hap- 
pens in  public." 

February  8.  "  Mr.  Fox,  in  a  motion  on  the  abuses  of  the  navy, 
was  very  personal  to  Lord  Sandwich,  whom  of  late  he  had  pur- 
sued with  much  violence.  I  told  him  of  it,  and  of  his  wasting 
his  fire  on  a  secondary  character,  whom  all  the  rest  were  willing 
to  sacrifice.  I  advised  him  to  make  his  push  at  Lord  North,  as, 
if  the  keystone  could  be  removed,  the  whole  edifice  would  fall. 
He  owned  I  was  right,  and  he  took  my  advice." 

This  may  be  so,  but  Mr.  Fox  never  had  much  intimate  inter- 
course with  Horace  Walpole,  did  not,  I  think,  like  him  at  all,  had 
no  opinion  of  his  judgment  or  conduct,  probably  had  imbibed 
some  prejudice  against  him  for  his  ill-usage  of  his  father,  and 
certainly  entertained  an  unfavorable  and  even  unjust  opinion  of 
his  abilities  as  a  writer.  H.  Walpole  was,  however,  better  ac- 
quainted and  even  intimate  with  many  of  his  friends,  the  Duke  of 
Ftichmond,  Lord  Ossory,  General  Fitzpatrick,  and  others. — v.  H. 

February  19.  In  a  debate  on  the  Mutiny  Bill,  Burke,  Fox,  and 
General  Conway  reflected  severely  on  the  traitor  Arnold. 


224  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

February  20.  '^Charles  Fox  moved  an  inquiry  into  Lord 
Sandwich's  mismanagement  of  the  navy  during  1781.  He  had 
intended  and  threatened  an  inquir}-  into  the  whole  administration, 
which  would  have  furnished  more  matter  of  censure,  at  least,  of 
discussion.  I  forget  why  it  was  thought  more  proper  to  narrow 
the  question  to  one  year.^  The  motion  was  rejected  by  a  majority 
of  19,  a  small  one,  prognosticating  the  downfall  of  the  Ministry." 

February  22.  ^'General  Conway  moved  to  address  the  King  to 
give  directions  to  his  Ministers  to  use  all  means  in  their  power  to 
restore  peace  and  to  give  up  all  thoughts  of  subduing  America.'' 
Walpole  recites  the  heads  of  his  speech  with  great  commendation, 
and  says,  "the  eiiect  was  incredible,"  and  observes,  "it  was  easy 
to  persuade  men  to  repent,  when  it  was  for  their  immediate  advan- 
tage," and  that  "the  fall  of  Lord  Gr.  Germaine  had  made  the  fabric 
totter."  Ellis,  the  new  secretary,  made  a  temporizing,  contradic- 
tory speech,  which  said  nothing,  but  enough  to  show  that  he  only 
wanted  to  conceal  what  he  thereby  discovered,  his  inclination  to 
continue  the  war.  Burke  "showed  that  the  person  was  changed, 
not  the  system."  "  Jenkinson  was  less  oracular,  and  Charles  Fox 
accordingly  applied  a  much  harsher  comment  on  him,  as  one  who 
was  the  mouth  of  the  oracle,  of  which  Ellis  was  only  the  statue; 
but,  as  if  Fox  had  embraced  all  the  notions  that  had  been  held 
about  oracles  (to  which,  indeed,  he  did  not  even  allude),  he  men- 
tioned the  infernal  spirit,  that  really  ruled  and  had  nearly  ruined 
the  country.  He  then  turned  to  another  of  the  bunch  and  said, 
should  the  Lord  Advocate  not  vote  for  the  motion,  what  he  had 
said  before  the  holidays  would  bear  the  construction  of  having 
arisen  from  personal  animosiiy,  otherwise  how  was  his  speaking 
against  one  Minister  and  supporting  another  to  be  accounted  for? 
Fox  might  ask,  but  Dundas  wanted  no  commentator  long ;  in  six 
months  he  fully  explained  his  own  comment,  and  that  he  had 
acted  not  from  personal  animosity,  but  from  personal  interest.  At 
two  the  House  divided,  and  rejected  Conway's  motion — but  by  a 

1  Probably  to  meet  the  ideas  and  secure  the  support  of  recent  converts 
to  Opposition. — Y.  H. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  225 

majority  of  one  voice  only  !  The  numbers  being  194  to  193,  ample 
intelligence  to  all  who  were  waiting  to  see  which  way  the  scale 
would  incline.  Mr.  Fox,  too  alert  not  to  profit  of  a  doubtful 
field,  immediately  gave  notice  that  the  same  question,  in  another 
shape,  would  be  renewed  in  a  few  days,  and  the  more  necessary, 
as  Lord  North  had  given  notice  that  he  should  open  the  budget 
on  an  early  day.  Colonel  Barre  reproached  Lord  North  bitterly 
for  that  notice,  when  he  ought  to  have  brought  forward  another 
business  which  he  had  utterly  neglected,  especially  the  reports  of 
the  Commissioners,  whom  he  had  kept  employed  for  two  years, 
and  yet  had  let  their  papers  lie  on  the  table  like  lumber.  He 
called  him  the  scourge  of  the  country,  with  many  harsh  additions 
and  accusations.  Lord  North,  who  was  a  laughing  philosopher 
only  when  backed  by  numbers,  finding  himself  so  hard  run  by  the 
division,  wanted  nothing  but  this  new  provocation  to  overset  his 
temper.  He  fell  into  a  furious  rage,  and  said  he  had  been  so 
used,  from  that  quarter,  to  language  so  uncivil,  so  brutal,  so  inso- 
lent— At  the  sound  of  these  words  there  was  an  immediate  uproar 
in  the  House;  the  Speaker  and  the  almost  triumphant  Opposi- 
tion called  him  to  order,  and  T.  Townshend,  in  no  less  severe 
terms,  complained  of  such  language  from  a  Minister,  as  totally 
annihilating  all  freedom  of  debate.  Lord  North  said  he  was 
ready  to  own  he  had  gone  too  far,  but  desired  the  House  to  recol- 
lect the  provocation,  and  that  he  would  ask  pardon  of  the  House, 
but  not  of  Barre.  After  a  tumult  of  three  hours,  Lord  North 
was  forced  to  make  an  apology  even  to  Barre." 
I  place  here  the  following  letter  : — - 

HON,  C.  J.  FOX  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"  February,  1782. 
"  Dear  Ossory  : — 

"  I  never  was  more  sorry  to  hear  you  were  gone  out  of  town  ; 
I  think  the  business  of  the  loan,  Monday,  is  likely  to  be  of  as 
much  consequence  towards  deciding  the  fate  of  these  people,  as 
any  day  this  year.     If  you  can  possibly  come,  pray  do ;  for  it  is 


226  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  83. 

really  childish,  when  attendance  is  of  such  real  importance,  to 
give  it  up  from  mere  idleness.  Wednesday  is  fixed  for  renewing 
the  American  question.  I  think  it  seems  to  be  the  general  opin- 
ion, that  the  thing  is  over,  and  that  they  must  go,  but  it  is  not 
mine. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

''C.  J.  FOX." 

February  27.  "  The  decisive  blow  was  given  to  an  Adminis- 
tration which  had  given  the  most  fatal  stab  to  the  glory  and  in- 
terest of  England,  by  (I  believe)  planning — certainly  by  taking 
no  step  to  prevent — pushing  on,  and  persisting  in  the  American 
war,  and  who  had,  by  the  countenance  of  the  Crown  and  by  the 
arts  of  the  Scotch  and  the  intoxication  of  the  nation,  maintained 
themselves  under  the  greatest  disgraces  and  losses  this  country 
had  ever  sustained — disgraces  in  a  great  measure  the  consequences 
of  impolicy,  early  neglect,  and  rash  perseverance  in  a  hopeless 
project.  And  though  they  struggled  for  a  fortnight  longer,  not 
without  a  slight  gleam  of  hope,  they  could  not  recover  their  de- 
feat. General  Conway,  who  had  been  the  principal  instrument 
of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act — a  service  that  would  have  pre- 
served tranquillity  in  America,  had  not  the  same  pernicious  arts 
that  had  embroiled  it  rekindled  the  flames — had  the  honor  of 
commanding  this  day  and  of  making  the  motion  which  gave  vic- 
tory to  the  Opposition,  and  by  its  consequences  liberty  to  America 
and  peace  to  England.  He  moved  to  declare  the  purpose  of  sub- 
duing the  revolted  colonies  by  force  impracticable — as  both  sides 
were  sensible  it  was — though  above  200  members  could  not  be 
induced  to  make  the  confession ;  yet  between  one  and  two  in  the 
morning  the  question  was  carried  by  234  votes  to  215.  The 
debate  may  be  found  at  large  in  various  publications.  The  de- 
bates in  general  have  been  so  accurately  taken  and  published  of 
late  years,  that  I  willingly  omit  them  in  this  journal,  become  far 
too  voluminous,  and  which  I  have  continued  so  long  merely  to 
preserve  certain  passages  less  known,  and  to  aid  future  historians, 
not  intending  the  journalist  part  for  any  other  usCj  which,  from 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  227 

my  retirement  from  the  public  scene,  from  my  total  disconnec- 
tion with  Ministers,  from  satiety  of  politics,  and  from  disgust 
with  so  fatal  a  war  and  so  impotent  and  shameful  an  Administra- 
tion, T  have  furnished  very  imperfectly ;  and  though  I  have  again 
been  master  of  many  lights  by  the  accession  of  some  few  of  my 
friends  to  power,  yet  age  and  indolence  have  unfitted  me  for 
taking  pains  to  inform  myself;  and  the  slight  notes  I  have  pre- 
served and  do  set  down  of  the  changes  that  happened  in  1782 
and  1783,  will  be  chiefly  such  as  I  can  warrant  the  truth  of, 
and  are  not  likely  to  be  found  in  narratives  of  men  much  less  con- 
versant with  some  of  the  principal  actors." 

March  4.  "  The  King  being  addressed  by  the  Commons,  in 
consequence  of  this  late  resolution  for  suspending  the  American 
war,  his  Majesty  sternly  and  ungraciously  told  them  that  he 
should,  in  pursuance  of  their  advice,  take  such  measures  as  should 
appear  to  him  {'  to  me/  said  he,  emphatically)  to  be  most  con- 
ducive to  the  restoration  of  harmony  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  revolted  colonies.  Authority  so  ill-timed,  and  so  impoliticly 
assumed  in  the  moment  of  defeat,  spoke  very  intelligibly  what 
sort  of  spirit  would  have  displayed  itself,  had  the  colonies,  as  his 
flatterers  had  promised  him,  been  reduced  to  unconditional  sub- 
mission, and  what  measure  would  have  been  dealt  out  to  the  Op- 
position had  the  royal  army  returned  triumphant.  Prerogative, 
that  spoke  in  so  high  a  tone  to  a  House  of  Commons,  that  had 
bound  its  hands,  would  soon  have  issued  lettres  de  cachet  cle  par 
le  Rot:' 

March  4.  ^'  That  vexation,  not  firmness,  had  dictated  the  Kind's 
response  was  evident,  for  the  same  day  he  sent  for  the  Chancellor, 
Thurlow,  and  told  him  Lord  North  must  give  up  his  post.  As 
there  was  no  cordiality  between  the  Prime  Minister  and  Chancel- 
lor, the  latter  was  not  secret  on  the  communication  made  to  him ; 
and,  by  divulging,  perhaps  expedited  Lord  North's  fall.  Thurlow 
did  not  foresee  that,  in  less  than  a  year  and  a  half,  himself  would 
be  the  disgraced  minister,  and  have  his  dismission  signified  to 
him  by  Lord  North.   The  latter  asked  whether,  if  he  was  to  retire, 


228  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

he  must  yet  propose  the  taxes  ?     '  Yes/  he  was  told ;  '  he  had 
borrowed  the  monej^'  • 

"  Charles  Fox  proposed  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  complain 
of  the  King's  answer ;  but  General  Conway,  who  had  moved  an 
address  of  thanks  for  that  answer,  Thomas  Pitt,  Sir  Gilbert,  and 
others,  overruled  Fox,  and  declared  against  violence.  Higby  at- 
tacked the  new  majority  warmly,  but  was  corrected  by  young 
William  Pitt,  who  told  him  the  nation  was  loeary  of  paying  him. 
The  Address  was  voted.  The  Commons  went  further,  and  de- 
clared such  enemies  who  should  advise  or  attempt  further  prose- 
cution of  the  American  war.'' 

March  6.  ^^  Lord  North,  not  being  ready  with  his  taxes,  but 
obliged  to  postpone  them,  was  severely  handled  by  Charles  Fox 
and  Burke." 

March  8.  Lord  J.  Cavendish  proposed  four  resolutions  to  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  first,  that  the  war  had  cost  100,000,000?. ; 
the  second,  to  state  our  losses ;  the  third,  that,  besides  America, 
we  were  at  war  with  France,  Spain,  and  Holland ;  and  the  fourth, 
which,  as  the  three  preceding,  were  self-evident  propositions: 
nobody  could  deny  that  all  were  owing  to  the  want  of  foresight 
and  ability  in  the  King's  Ministers,  whom  he  should  move  to  have 
changed.  There  seemed  to  be  a  little  precipitation  in  these  mo- 
tions, though  it  is  scarcely  wise  not  to  pursue  a  victory ;  yet,  as 
Lord  North  was  in  three  days  to  open  his  taxes,  it  was  most  pro- 
bable they  would  excite  more  enemies  to  him,  and  therefore,  as  he 
had  often  recovered  from  many  slippery  situations,  it  might  have 
been  prudent  to  secure  all  advantages  against  him.  This  reason- 
ing appeared  just,  for  Lord  John's  motions  were  rejected  by  a 
majority  of  ten. 

Lord  Maitland  (Lauderdale)  reproached  Ministers  with  having 
often  defied  and  called  for  charges,  and  now  endeavored  to  avoid 
them  by  the  most  pitiful  shifts.  Sir  Fletcher  Norton,  who  had 
long  borne  enmity  to  liigby,  for  a  former  offence,  dragged  him 
into  the  debate,  and  complained  of  tlie  vast  sum  of  money  in  the 
Paymaster's  hands,  and  said,  if  interest  was  made  of  that  money, 
it  ought  to  belong  to  the  public,  and  declared  that  if  the  Crown 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  229 

lawyers  did  not  take  up  the  matter,  he  would.  Kigby  defended 
himself,  and  at  the  same  time  not  only  retorted  severely  on  Sir 
Fletcher,  whose  character  furnished  ample  matter,  but  a  little  in- 
discreetly on  Fox,  with  the  highest  encomiums  on  his  friend,  the 
Lord  Advocate,  whose  speech  of  that  day  he  pronounced  the  finest 
he  had  ever  heard ;  a  proof  of  which  he  said  was,  that  it  was  the 
speech  which  had  most  galled  the  Opposition.  Sheridan  replied 
wittily,  that  if  those  speeches  were  the  best  which  gave  most 
oflfence,  Rigby  himself  was  the  Demosthenes  of  the  House.  It 
was  very  true — nobody  was  so  apt  to  provoke  by  indiscreet  vio- 
lence. But  the  most  remarkable  incident  of  the  day  was  a  far 
greater  indiscretion  of  one  who,  soon  afterwards,  became  a  capi- 
tal personage.  This  was  young  William  Pitt,  second  son  of  the 
renowned  Lord  Chatham,  who  had  already  much  distinguished 
himself  by  his  premature  eloquence.  The  debate  had  turned 
much  on  a  new  arrangement  of  Ministers.  Pitt  said  he  knew  not 
who  they  would  be,  but  he  felt  himself  obliged  to  declare  (even 
that  was  not  very  modest)  that  he  himself  could  not  expect  to 
take  any  share  in  a  new  Administration,  and  were  his  doing  so 
more  within  his  reach,  he  never  would  accept  a  subordinate  situ- 
ation. So  arrogant  a  declaration  from  a  boy  who  had  gained  no 
experience  from,  nor  ever  enjoyed  even  the  lowest  post  in  any 
office,  and  who  for  half  a  dozen  orations  (extraordinary  indeed, 
but  no  evidence  of  capacity  for  business)  presumed  himself  fit 
for  command,  proved  that  he  was  a  boy,  and  a  very  ambitious  and 
a  very  vain  one.  The  moment  he  sat  down,  he  was  aware  of  his 
folly,  and  said  he  could  bite  his  tongue  out  for  what  it  had  ut- 
tered ;  but  though  he  lamented  his  imprudence,  it  was  of  his 
frankness  he  repented.  In  a  very  few  months  he  showed  that  he 
had  neither  corrected  his  vanity  nor  his  ambition. 

"Lord  North,  on  the  10th  of  March,  declared  to  the  King 
that  he  was  determined  to  resign  his  post.  The  Lord  Advocate, 
who  had  opened  the  breach,  which  he  had  intended  should  soon 
be  closed  by  his  own  stopping  all  the  gap  he  had  projected,  in 
the  dismission  of  Lord  G.  Germaine,  perceiving  now  that  much 
more  of  the  fabric  would  tumble  than  he  had  approved,  had,  since 
VOL.  L— 20 


230  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

the  27tb,  talked  much  of  the  coalition  of  parties,  and  even  pro- 
posed to  search  for  some  unexceptionable  man,  under  whom  all 
parties  might  unite,  but  he  was  disregarded,  as  he  deserved,  nor 
was  he  long  in  finding  his  account  in  the  mischief  he  had  made. 
He  did  find  it  just  long  enough  to  give  him  occasion  to  display 
farther  his  versatility." 

"  It  was  to  another  hand  the  King  intrusted  the  office  of  mak- 
ing a  new  arrangement.  It  was  the  Chancellor  Thurlow  he  com- 
missioned to  sound  Lord  Rockingham  with  overtures  of  appointing 
him  First  Minister.  I  must  premise  that  I  imagine  the  Chancel- 
lor, from  that  and  other  occasional  confidences,  entertained  some 
views  occasionally  of  becoming  First  Minister  himself.  It  is  sure, 
at  least,  that  he  acted  cordially  with  no  other  Premier.  But  his 
indolence,  his  want  of  policy,  and  brutality  of  temper  might  occa- 
sion his  inharmonious  behavior,  as  the  last  had  evidently  more 
part  in  his  fall  in  the  succeeding  year  than  intrigue  or  ambition. '^ 
^^  When  the  Chancellor  opened  his  business  to  Lord  Rockingham, 
the  latter  asked  him  if  he  came  by  authority.  ^  No,'  said  Thur- 
low; ^  but  your  lordship  may  trust  to  me.'  The  Marquis  replied 
that  he  could  not  listen  to  him  unless  he  came  by  authority. 
The  Chancellor  said  he  would  come  with  it  the  next  day."^ 

March  13.  '^  It  was  publicly  given  out  that  Lord  North  had 
resigned,  or  intended  it;  yet,  the  next  day,  he  determined  to  en- 
counter a  repetition  of  Lord  J.  Cavendish's  last  motions,  which 
he  knew  were  to  be  made." 

March  15.  ^'  On  the  15th,  the  same  attack  was  renewed,  and 
by  a  hand  that  gave  more  weight,  being  that  of  Sir  J.  Rous,  till 
this  time  much  devoted  to  Lord  North,  and  a  Tory  by  principle, 
as  he  avowed,  and  who  said  he  had  loved  the  amiableness  of  Lord 
North's  private  character.  He  renewed  Lord  John's  four  ques- 
tions, prefacing  them  by  a  declaration  that  the  facts  contained 
were  the  reasons  why  he  could  not  place  any  confidence  in  the 

'  Here  follows  very  tedious  and  indistinct  proof,  founded  on  the 
Mutiny  Bill  and  on  Irish  politics,  of  the  influence  of  Jenkinsou  over  the 
King's  mind. — V.  II. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  231 


King's  MiDisters.  Yet  not  this  defection  of  a  creditable  friend, 
nor  the  probability  of  a  change,  nor  the  solicitations  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  made  interest  against  Lord  North,  though  he  in- 
fluenced but  one  vote  (that  of  Lord  Melbourne^),  were  as  yet  effica- 
cious to  overturn  the  Minister.  The  motions,  after  a  long  debate, 
were  rejected,  and  Lord  North  had  a  majority  of  nine  for  him. 
Certain  it  is,  nothing  could  exceed  the  aversion  of  the  King — not 
to  parting  with  his  Minister,  but  to  accepting  one  by  force.  All 
his  arts,  little  ones,  indeed^  were  employed  to  avoid  that  humilia- 
tion ;  and  though  he  succeeded  in  the  only  artifice  in  which  he 
ever  had  succeeded,  sowing  division,  yet  he  not  only  avoided  no 
mortification,  but  laid  a  foundation  for  receiving  much  greater,  as 
he  felt  in  a  twelvemonth  after. 

March  18.  "  The  Chancellor  went  again  to  Lord  Kockingham,^ 
on  how  silly  a  message  appeared  by  its  no  effect,  though  a  man  of 
so  great  talents  was  the  messenger,  and  a  man  of  so  slender  parts 
the  receiver.  The  Chancellor's  mission  was  to  persuade  the  Mar- 
quis to  accept  the  Administration,  and  to  settle  the  terms  after- 
wards. The  Marquis  gave  a  direct  negative.  Had  the  Marquis 
been  so  weak  as  to  yield,  perhaps  his  Majesty  might  have  com- 
forted himself  with  duping,  exposing,  and  ruining  him  with  his 
party,  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  public,  and  not  continued  to  medi- 
tate a  project  that  spoke  nothing  but  unconquerable  obstinacy  and 
childish  desperation.  He  not  only  talked  of  returning  to  Hanover, 
but  it  is  most  certain  that  for  a  fortnight  together  the  Royal  yacht 
was  expediting  and  preparing  for  transporting  [him].     What  fur- 

'  Created,  January  11,  1781,  an  Irish  peer. 

2  In  one  of  those  conversations  Lord  Rockingham  mentioned  the 
measures  he  should  expect  to  be  adopted  if  he  came  into  place,  as — peace 
with  America ;  general  peace ;  disqualifying  of  contractors  from  sitting 
in  Parliament,  and  revenue  officers  from  voting  at  elections ;  and  plans 
of  economy:  but  the  Chancellor  avoided  the  discussion,  saying,  "it 
would  be  more  proper  after  the  new  Administration  should  be  settled, 
than  before,  and  that  for  his  part  the  object  of  his  mission  was  to  enable 
the  King  to  quiet  internal  commotions — though  at  that  time  none  sub- 
sisted but  the  general  distaste  to  the  war." — H.  W. 


232  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

ther  steps  he  meant  to  take  I  do  not  pretend  to  know,  nor  whether 
he  had  digested  any  plan  whether  his  secession  was  to  be  perma- 
nent or  temporary  3  whether  he  meant  to  leave  the  Queen  Regent, 
or  to  carry  her  and  the  younger  children  with  him.  Such  moody 
peevishness  probably  had  not  looked  for,  nor  fixed  upon  any  sjs- 
tem,  when  it  was  not  possible  that  any  one  should  satisfy  him. 
The  thought,  however,  was  not  novel.^  I  have  heard  from  the 
best  authority  that,  in  the  heat  of  Wilkes's  war  on  him,  he  had 
meditated  a  parallel  retreat." 

March  20.  "  Though  no  steps  had  been  taken  that  promised  a 
new  settlement,  Lord  North  declared  the  Administration  was  dis- 
solved." 

[On  the  17th  of  March,  after  the  motion  of  Sir  John  Rous  in 
the  Commons,  the  King  writes  to  Lord  North]  :  "  Sorry  to  find 
that  the  majority  this  morning  did  not  exceed  nine.  It  looks  as 
if  the  House  of  Commons  were  going  lengths  that  conld  not  have 
been  expected.  I  am  resolved  not  to  throw  myself  into  the  hands 
of  Opposition  at  all  events,  and  shall  certainly,  if  things  go  as  they 
seem  to  tend,  know  what  my  conscience  as  well  as  honor  dictates, 
as  the  only  way  left  for  me."  [Lord  North's  reply  to  this  m.ys- 
terious  announcement  of  what  his  Majesty  intended  to  do,  in  case 
the  House  of  Commons  persisted  in  their  resolution  to  put  an  end 
to  the  American  war,  must  have  expressed  more  strongly  than  he 
had  hitherto  done  his  determination  to  resign,  for  on  the  following 
day  the  King  writes  to  him] :  "  After  having  yesterday  assured 
you,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  my  sentiments  of  honor 
would  not  permit  me  to  send  for  any  of  the  leaders  of  Opposition, 

'  The  present  King,  George  IV.,  told  me  a  story  of  his  father's  phm  of 
retiring  to  Hanover,  and  described,  with  more  hnmor  than  filial  rever- 
ence, his  arrangement  of  the  details,  and  especially  of  the  liveries  and 
dresses,  about  which  he  was  so  earnest  that  it  amounted  almost  to  in- 
sanity. The  period,  however,  of  these  strange  fancies  was,  I  think,  that 
of  Lord  George  Gordon's  riots,  not  of  the  fall  of  Lord  North's  ministry — 
perhaps  he  might  have  talked  of  such  a  project  on  both  occasions,  and 
he  was  more  likely  to  communicate  his  half-formed  intentions  to  his  son 
in  1780  than  in  1782.— V.H. 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  233 

and  personally  treat  with  tliem,  T could  not  but  be  liurt  at  your  letter 
of  last  night.  Every  man  must  be  the  sole  judge  of  his  own 
feelings;  therefore,  whatever  you  07*  any  man  can  say  has  no  avail 
loith  me.  Till  I  have  heard  what  the  Chancellor  has  done  from 
his  own  mouth,  I  shall  take  no  step;  and  if  you  resign  before  I 
have  decided  what  to  do,  you  will  certainly  forever  forfeit  my  re- 
gard/' [It  is  but  justice,  however,  to  George  III.  to  add  that, 
after  this  ebullition  of  temporary  resentment,  his  letter  to  Lord 
North,  when  the  sacrifice  had  been  consummated,  ends  with  his 
former  expressions  of  affection  and  regard.  On  the  27th  of  March, 
he  writes] :  "  At  length  the  fatal  day  is  come,  which  the  misfor- 
tunes of  the  times,  and  the  sudden  change  of  sentiments  of  the 
House  of  Commons  have  driven  me  to,  of  changing  my  Ministers, 
and  a  more  general  removal  of  other  persons,  than,  I  believe,  was 
ever  known  before.  I  have  to  tlie  last  fought  for  individuals,  but 
the  number  I  have  saved,  except  my  Bedchamber,  is  incredibly 
few.  You  could  hardly  believe  that  even  the  Duke  of  Montague 
was  strongly  hinted  at;  but  I  declared  that  I  would  sooner  let 
confusion  follow  than  part  with  the  late  governor  of  my  sons,  and 
so  unexceptionable  a  man.  So  that  he  and  Lord  Ashburnham 
remain.  The  effusion  of  my  sorrows  has  made  me  say  more  than  I 
intended;  but  I  ever  did,  and  ever  shall,  look  on  you  as  a  friend, 
as  well  as  a  faithful  servant/' 


CHANGE  OF  ADMINISTRATION,  1782. 

[from  the  original  in  the  handavriting  of  general  fitzpatrick.] 

Wednesday,  the  20th  of  March,  1782.  Lord  North  announced 
to  the  House  of  Commons  the  resignation  of  the  Ministry.  At 
his  instance,  the  House  consented  to  an  adjournment,  in  order  to 
afford  time  for  the  arrangement  of  their  successors,  till  Monday. 
Previous  to  this  the  Chancellor  had  been  with  Lord  Rockingham, 
to  know  upon  what  terms  he  would  undertake  to  form  an  Adminis- 
tration. He  answered,  that  the  measures  he  should  propose  were 
as  follows :  A  power  to  accede  to  the  independence  of  America ; 

20* 


234  COKKESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

a  reduction  of  the  influence  of  the  Crown  by  an  abolition  of  offices  j 
and  Bills  to  deprive  contractors  of  their  seats  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  revenue  officers  of  their  votes  at  elections.  With 
respect  to  any  reform  in  the  representation,  or  limiting  the  dura- 
tion of  Parliaments,  he  declined  laying  himself  under  any  restric- 
tions. 

On  Monday  the  House  adjourned  again. 

On  Thursday,  21st  of  March,  Lord  Shelburne  was  sent  for  to 
Buckingham  House.  He  did  not  relate  to  Lord  Rockingham  what 
passed  between  the  King  and  himself,  a  reserve  with  which  many 
were  dissatisfied.  He  said,  generally,  that  the  conversation  had 
ended  in  nothing. 

Friday  and  Saturday  passed  without  any  further  overtures  being 
made  to  any  of  the  Opposition.  Lord  Gower  was  said  to  have 
been  consulted,  but  everybody  saw  the  impossibility  of  forming  an 
Administration  without  Lord  Rockins-ham  and  his  friends. 

On  Sunday  morning,  Lord  Shelburne  was  again  sent  for.  He 
then  came  from  the  King  with  an  offer  of  the  Treasury  to  Lord 
Rockingham,  himself  to  be  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State ;  and 
declared  himself  in  possession  of  full  powers  from  his  Majesty  to 
treat  both  as  to  men  and  measures.  Lord  Rockino:ham's  first 
impulse  was  to  decline  the  offer,  upon  the  ground  that,  if  it  was 
the  King's  intention  to  place  him  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury,  he 
could  have  no  fit  objection  to  conversing  with  him  upon  the  ar- 
ranirement  of  the  Administration. 

Charles  Fox,  though  he  acknowledged  the  truth  of  this,  joined, 
however,  with  the  Duke  of  Richmond  in  persuading  Lord  Rocking- 
ham to  accede  to  the  proposal,  in  order  to  avoid  the  appearance  of 
impeding  the  formation  of  a  Ministry,  from  motives  which  might 
be  ascribed  to  pique  or  jealousy,  at  a  moment  when  the  public 
were  naturally  extremely  anxious  and  impatient  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Government. 

Lord  Rockingham,  however,  accompanied  his  acceptance  with  a 
list  of  those  whom  he  expected  should  compose  the  Cabinet,  leav- 
ing a  blank  for  Lord  Shelburne,  to  fill  the  office  of  Chancellor,  as 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  ,         235 

he  might  be  supposed  to  know  Mr.  Dunning's  inclinations  upon 
that  subject.     The  list  was  as  follows  : — 

LoKD  Rockingham     .         .         .  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 

Lord  J.  CAVENDisn   .         .         .  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 

Admiral  Keppel        .         .         .  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty. 

Duke  or  Richmond    .         .         .  Master-General  of  the  Ordnance. 

Charles  Fox  &  Lord  Shelburne  Secretaries  of  State. 

Lord  Cajiden    ....  President  of  the  Council. 

Duke  of  Grafton      .         .         .  Lord  Privy  Seal. 

General  Conway       .         .         .  Commander-in-Chief. 

A  large  meeting  of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  was 
held  in  the  evening,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Thomas  Townshendj  to 
whom  this  list  was  communicated.  Accordius:  to  the  general  con- 
duct  and  principles  of  the  persons  composing  it,  Lord  Rockingham 
and  Mr.  Fox  seemed  to  have  the  preponderating  scale  in  this  ar- 
rangement; the  list  was  approved  of,  and  sent  to  Lord  Shelburne, 
who  returned  for  answer  his  perfect  approbation  of  it,  and  trans- 
mitted it  to  the  King.  On  Monday  morning,  he  was  to  receive 
the  King's  answer,  and  it  was  resolved  at  this  meeting  of  Opposi- 
tion not  to  accede  to  any  further  adjournment  of  the  House  of 
Commons  unless  these  terms  were  complied  with,  and  to  one  not 
exceeding  two  days  if  they  were.  Lord  Shelburne  wished  to  have 
the  House  adjourned  over  the  Easter  holidays,  but  Charles  Fox 
would  not  by  any  means  consent  to  it,  and  told  him  his  determi- 
nation to  oppose  any  such  measure,  if  proposed  ;  in  which  opposi- 
tion there  was  no  doubt  he  would  have  been  successful  from  the 
temper  of  the  House. 

Lord  Shelburne  staid  with  the  King  from  eleven  o'clock  till  two, 
when  he  came  to  Charles  Fox,  who  was  preparing  to  go  down  to 
the  House,  and  told  him  the  proposals  were  substantially  agreed 
to,  and  that  Mr.  Dunning  would  move  an  adjournment  one  day 
only  for  the  final  arrangement  of  them.  Lord  Thurlow  was  to 
continue  Chancellor.  They  had  a  conversation  of  some  length, 
while  several  members  were  waiting  in  the  antechamber  to  carry 
down  to  the  House  of  Commons  the  result  of  these  negotiations. 
Charles  Fox  told  Lord  Shelburne  that  he  perceived  this  Adminis- 


236  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

tration  was  to  consist  of  two  parts — one  belonging  to  the  King,  the 
other  to  the  public ;  an  observation  the  truth  of  which  was  very 
soon  confirmed.  Lord  Shelburne,  without  concert  or  communica- 
tion with  the  other  Ministers,  added  Mr.  Dunning  to  the  Cabinet, 
which  was  injudiciously  acquiesced  in  by  Lord  Rockingham  and 
his  friends ;  he  was  created  Lord  Ashburton,  and  made  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  with  an  additional  salary  during 
life.  In  consequence  of  this  promotion,  it  was  thought  right  that 
Lord  Rockingham  should  ask  a  peerage  for  Sir  Fletcher  Norton, 
although  none  of  the  party  placed  much  confidence  either  in  his 
abilities  or  integrity,  but  on  account  of  his  having  been  persecuted 
by  the  Court  for  his  conduct  when  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Lord  Howe  and  Admiral  Keppel  were  made  Viscounts. 
Colonel  Barre  was  appointed  Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  and,  at  Lord 
Shelburne's  instance,  got  a  pension  of  2000/.  a  year  for  life  ;  and 
Lord  Tankerville,  another  of  his  friends,  was  appointed  Postmas- 
ter, Lord  Barrington  being  removed  to  make  room  for  him,  with  a 
pension  of  2000*?.  a  year  for  life.  These  pensions  gave  much  dis- 
"Batisfaction  to  the  public,  and  the  odium  of  them  was  always  art- 
fully thrown  upon  Lord  Rockingham,  although  his  own  friend, 
Mr.  Burke,  who  was  appointed  Paymaster  of  the  Forces,  enjoyed 
his  salary  during  pleasure  only.  Considering  the  principles  upon 
which  the  Administration  came  into  power,  the  granting  these  pen- 
sions was  certainly  not  justifiable. 

[It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  add,  from  Mr.  Adam's  papers, 
some  farther  particulars  of  the  change  of  Ministry  in  March, 
1782.] 

[Between  the  8th  of  March,  when  Lord  John  Cavendish  made 
his  motion  of  censure  on  Ministers,  and  the  15th,  when  Sir  John 
Rous  moved  to  withdraw  from  them  the  confidence  of  Parliament, 
it  appears  that  full  powers  had  been  given  to  the  Chancellor,  Lord 
Thurlow,  to  treat  with  the  Opposition.  Lord  Thurlow,  after 
giving  notice  of  his  commission  to  Lord  Shelburne,  had  an  inter- 
view with  Lord  Rockingham.  The  demands  of  Lord  Rocking- 
ham were  the  following  :     That  the  Contractors'   Bill,   Burke's 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  237 

Bill,  and  Crewe's  Bill,  should  be  made  Government  measures, 
and  that  a  Ministry  should  be  formed  on  the  basis  of  peace  and 
economy.  To  this  basis  the  Chancellor  had  no  objection,  but  he 
would  not  give  his  consent  to  the  three  bills,  and  so  the  negotia- 
tion ended.] 

[Overtures  were  then  made  to  Lord  Gower  to  undertake  the 
Government.  Mr.  Adam  saw  a  letter  from  the  King  to  Mr.  Jen- 
kinson  on  the  subject,  directing  the  chancellor]  "  to  take  every 
step  to  widen  the  bottom  of  his  Administration  ;"  adding  that  the 
King  '^can  never  submit  to  a  total  change  without  abandoning  his 
jprinciples  and  his  Jionor,  which  he  will  never  do." 

[Lord  Rockingham,  at  his  own  request,  had  a  second  meeting 
with  the  Chancellor,  but  insisting  on  his  former  demands,  the 
Chancellor  declared]  "  he  would  have  no  farther  communication 
with  a  man  who  thouofht  the  exclusion  of  a  contractor  from  Par- 

o 

liament,  and  the  disfranchisement  of  an  exciseman,  of  more  im- 
portance than  the  salvation  of  the  country  in  its  present  situation. 
Lord  Rockingham,"  he  said, ''  was  bringing  things  to  a  pass,  where 
either  his  head  or  the  King's  must  go,  in  order  to  settle  which  of 
them  was  to  govern  the  country." 

[On  Wednesday,  the  20th  of  March,  when  Lord  North  an- 
nounced to  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  Administration  was 
dissolved,  he  had  been  authorized  by  the  King  to  make  that  de- 
claration only  half  an  hour  before  he  came  down  to  the  House. 
The  King  having  observed  to  him  that,  considering  the  temper  of 
the  Commons,  he  thought  the  Administration  was  at  an  end.  Lord 
North  remarked,  "  Would  it  not  be  better  in  that  case  to  say  so 
at  once?"  "Well,  you  may  do  so,"  was  the  reply.  Having, 
obtained  this  permission,  which  as  far  as  his  own  resignation  was 
concerned,  he  had  often  before  solicited  in  vain.  Lord  North  hur- 
ried down  to  the  House,  and  as  soon  as  he  could  obtain  a  hearing, 
announced  that  the  Ministry  was  totally  at  an  end.  "  He  spoke  with 
much  sagacity,"  says  Adam,  "  and  a  proper  feeling  on  the  occasion. 
No  man  ever  showed  more  calmness,  cheerfulness,  and  serenity. 
The  temper  of  his  whole  family  was  the  same.  I  dined  with 
them  that  day,  and  was  witness  to  it."] 


238  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  33. 

[Lord  Holland  has  left  a  lively  account  of  the  scene  that  passed 
in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  night  when  Lord  North  an- 
nounced his  Administration  was  at  an  end.] 

I  have  heard  my  uncle  Fitzpatrick  give  a  very  diverting  ac- 
count of  the  scene  that  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
day  of  Lord  North's  resignation,  which  happened  to  be  a  remarkably 
cold  day,  with  a  fall  of  snow.  A  motion  of  Lord  Surrey's,  for 
the  dismissal  of  Ministers,  stood  for  that  day,  and  the  Whigs 
were  anxious  that  it  should  come  on  before  the  resignation  of 
Lord  North  was  officially  announced,  that  his  removal  from  office 
might  be  more  manifestly  and  formally  the  act  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  and  Lord  Surrey  rose  at  the  same  instant ;  after 
much  clamor,  disorder,  and  some  insignificant  speeches  on  order, 
Mr.  Fox,  with  great  quickness  and  address,  moved,  as  the  most 
regular  method  of  extricating  the  House  from  its  embarrassment, 
"  that  Lord  Surrey  be  now  heard."  But  Lord  North,  with  yet 
more  admirable  presence  of  mind,  mixed  with  pleasantry,  rose 
immediately,  and  said,  "  I  rise  to  speak  to  that  motion ;"  and,  as 
his  reason  for  opposing  it,  stated  his  resignation  and  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Ministry.  The  House,  satisfied,  became  impatient, 
and  after  some  ineffectual  efforts  of  speakers  on  both  sides  to  pro- 
cure a  hearing,  an  adjournment  took  place.  Snow  was  falling, 
and  the  night  tremendous.  All  the  members'  carriages  were  dis- 
missed, and  Mrs.  Bennet's  room  at  the  door  was  crowded.  But 
Lord  North's  carriage  was  waiting.  He  put  into  it  one  or  two 
of  his  friends  whom  he  had  invited  to  go  home  with  him,  and 
turning  to  the  crowd,  chiefly  composed  of  his  bitter  enemies,  in 
the  midst  of  their  triumph,  exclaimed,  in  this  hour  of  defeat  and 
supposed  mortification,  with  admirable  good-humor  and  pleasantry, 
''  I  have  my  carriage.  You  see,  gentlemen,  the  advantage  of  being 
in  the  secret.     Good-night.'^ 

[To  resume  the  extracts  from  Mr.  Adam's  papers.  Lord  Shel- 
burne  was  sent  for  by  advice  of  the  Chancellor,  who  was  offended 
with  the  reception  his  offers  had  met  with  from  Lord  Rockingham. 
The  first  time  Lord  Shelburne  saw  the  King,  was  on  Thursday 
(March  21st).     He  received  the  message  while  he  was  at  dinner 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMBS   FOX.  239 

with  some  friends.  He  immediately  left  his  company,  and  went 
to  Buckingham  House.  The  interview  was  long,  and  Lord  Shel- 
burne  communicated  nothing  of  what  had  passed  to  any  of  the 
Rockingham  party,  though  he  spent  the  evening  with  them  in  a 
great  party  at  Devonshire  House.  To  avoid  inquiries,  he  sat  down 
to  play  at  faro  ;  but  no  one  there  knew  where  he  had  been,  except 
Lord  Weymouth  and  Mr.  Kigby,  who  had  seen  the  Chancellor 
after  the  interview.]  "  I  was  informed  of  it,"  says  Mr.  Adam, 
"  next  morning,  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock,  by  Mr.  Jenkinson, 
and  between  eleven  and  twelve  T  called  on  Lord  North,  and  told 
him  that  I  had  heard  such  a  report,  and  had  reason  to  believe  it 
to  be  true,  but  did  not  mention  my  authority."  "  Lord  North," 
adds  Mr.  Adam,  "  was  hurt  and  mortified  that  he  had  not  been 
informed  of  it  by  the  Chancellor." 

[The  second  interview  of  Lord  Shelburne  with  the  King  was 
next  day  or  the  day  after  that.  Still  no  communication  with  the 
Rockinghams.  On  the  Sunday,  which  was  the  following  day,  he 
was  again  with  his  Majesty  at  nine  in  the  morning,  and  on  that 
day,  at  one  o'clock,  his  servant  was  seen  at  Mr.  Fox's  door.  Mr. 
Adam  adds  that  in  the  course  of  the  day  Lord  Rockingham  sent 
his  plan  of  Administration,  but  that  it  required  persuasion  on  the 
part  of  his  friends  to  prevail  upon  him.] 

[As  Mr.  Adam  was  not  at  that  time  in  the  confidence  of  either 
the  Rockingham  or  Shelburne  party,  the  account  he  gives  of  the 
difficulties  they  had  to  get  over  in  forming  their  Administration  is 
derived  from  common  rumor,  and  not  worthy  therefore  of  inser- 
tion; he  was  at  that  time  the  intimate  friend  of  Lord  North,  and 
consequently  hostile  to  those  who  were  to  succeed  him.] 

Thus  ended  the  Administration  of  Lord  North,  and  with  it  the 
American  War. 

*  We  may  conclude  this  period  by  a  review  of  the  memorable 
events  which  marked  the  early  periods  of  Mr.  Fox's  political  life. 

The  politics  of  the  Court  received  from  him,  for  a  time,  a  vigor- 
ous support;  but  he  soon  burst  the  chains  in  which  he  had  been 
confined,  and  giving  loose  to  his  natural  genius,  displayed  at  once 


240  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [j^TAT.  33. 

the  mighty  power  of  his  understanding,  and  the  expansive  bene- 
volence of  his  heart. 

Mr.  Grattan,  who  had  heard  Mr.  Fox  at  various  epochs,  declar- 
ed his  preference  for  the  speeches  delivered  during  the  American 
war  to  all  the  other  efforts  of  his  eloquence. 

The  American  war  was  indeed  a  subject  fit  to  inspire  the  genius 
of  an  orator  beyond  all  other  occasions  of  modern  times.  The 
singular  folly  of  the  original  provocation  ;  the  absurdity  of  renew- 
ing the  quarrel,  when  the  embers  of  a  former  dispute  were  yet 
warm ;  the  want  of  foresight  which  was  exhibited  in  making  con- 
cessions always  a  year  or  two  after  the  time  when  they  would 
have  been  successful  in  closing  the  breach;  the  wretched  plan 
upon  which  the  war  was  carried  on ;  the  extravagance  of  attempt- 
ing to  conquer  America  when  a  French  and  Spanish  fleet  rode 
triumphant  in  the  Channel ;  the  opposition  to  all  wise  counsels 
persisted  in  till  the  very  members  of  the  Ministry  fell  off  from  the 
body;  the  animating  struggle  which  at  the  end  made  victory 
doubtful  in  each  successive  fight ;  above  all,  the  immense  conse- 
quences involved  in  the  contest;  all  these  were  circumstances  to 
quicken  into  life  the  energies  of  a  great  orator. 

In  reviewing  the  history  of  this  period,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
perceive  the  blindness  and  weakness  of  nearly  all  the  various  rulers 
who  succeeded  each  other  in  the  government  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Grenville,  seeing  the  progress  made  by  the  North  Ameri- 
can colonies,  and  their  obvious  tendency  to  evade  and  disregard 
the  British  laws,  thought  to  bind  them  by  regulations  which  could 
scarcely  be  enforced  in  the  Thames  and  the  Mersey.  Pteflecting 
that  seventy  millions  of  debt  had  been  incurred  during  the  Seven 
Years'  war,  in  securing  and  extending  our  American  empire,  he 
proposed  to  make  the  triumphant  and  formidable  colonists  pay  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year  to  the  British  revenue ! 

Lord  Rockingham  repealed  the  Stamp  Act,  but  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  maintain  the  right  of  taxing  America.  Whatever  this 
right  might  be  as  a  question  of  public  or  national  law,  it  was 
obvious  it  could  not  be  exercised  with  justice  or  equity;  but  per- 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  241 

haps  it  was  not  practicable  at  that  time  to  abandon  it,  nor  do  the 
Americans  appear  to  have  resented  the  barren  claim. 

The  Ministry  of  Lord  Chatham,  however,  reached  the  climax  of 
improvidence  and  absurdity.  It  had  been  proved  that  the  attempt 
to  tax  America  had  provoked  resistance;  it  was  therefore  deter- 
mined to  try  a  new  tax  with  the  certainty  of  rousing  a  new  resist- 
ance. Mr.  Grenville  had  failed  in  obtaining  a  substantial  revenue 
from  America;  it  was  therefore  decided  to  maintain  a  tax,  for  the 
sake  of  a  tax,  for  no  object  but  that  of  a  quarrel,  when  all  prospect 
of  revenue  had  disappeared. 

It  is  due  to  Lord  Chatham  to  say  that  the  tea-duty  was  im- 
posed when  he  was  incapable  of  attending  to  business.  It  was 
afterwards  retained,  when  other  taxes  were  given  up,  by  the  Min- 
istry of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  against  the  opinion  of  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  himself,  of  Lord  Camden,  of  Lord  Shelburne,  and  of 
General  Conway. 

Surely  such  a  decision,  carried  by  a  majority  of  one  in  the  Ca- 
binet, ought  to  have  opened  the  eyes  of  all  the  Whig  members  of 
that  Cabinet.  It  was  clear  that  Lord  North,  the  scion  of  a  Tory 
family,  the  inheritor  of  Tory  principles,  had  inaugurated  a  Tory 
Government  on  the  appropriate  occasion  of  enforcing  the  payment 
of  a  tax  against  justice  and  against  policy,  for  the  purpose  of  set- 
ting up  Authority  against  Liberty. 

When  Lord  North  was  made  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  there  was  still  time  to  conciliate 
America.  Lord  Chatham  would  have  willingly  concurred  in  any 
plan  by  which  the  right  of  taxation  should  be  surrendered,  and 
the  supremacy  of  the  mother  country  retained.  But  neither  the 
King  nor  his  Ministers  had  the  wisdom  to  make  with  dignity,  and 
with  effect,  concessions  which  they  made  three  years  afterwards 
without  dignity  and  without  effect. 

It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  in  his  resistance  to  American 
claims  George  III.  had  the  full  concurrence  of  his  people.  The 
national  pride  revolted  from  any  submission  to  demands  loudly 
put  forth,  and  accompanied  with  menaces  of  rebellion. 

The  further  question  remains :  Had  Lord  Chatham  been  called 
VOL.  I. — 21 


242  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  33. 

to  the  councils  of  his  Sovereign,  and  had  he  succeeded  by  his 
supreme  authority  in  England,  and  his  wide  popularity  in  Ame- 
rica, in  reconciling  the  two  nations,  would  such  a  result  have  been 
permanently  advantageous  to  both? 

On  the  one  hand,  it  may  be  said  that,  so  long  as  they  kept 
united,  England  and  America  might  have  led  the  civilization  of 
the  world.  Had  they  forbidden  the  invasion  of  France  in  1792, 
that  invasion  would  not  have  taken  place.  The  fury  of  the  Jaco- 
bin party  in  France,  the  massacres  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  the 
bloody  wars  of  Napoleon,  might  all  have  been  spared  to  Europe. 
A  powerful  statesman  like  Mr.  Fox,  united  with  Mr.  Pitt,  might 
have  said  to  Prussia  and  to  Austria,  "  You  shall  not  interfere  in 
the  internal  concerns  of  France ;"  and  to  the  French  Government, 
"  You  shall  not  invade  the  territory  of  any  independent  state." 
A  minister  speaking  this  language,  with  the  resources  of  Great 
Britain,  Ireland,  and  America  in  his  hand,  would  not  have  spoken 
in  vain.  Europe  in  1800  might  have  enjoyed  the  blessings  which 
half  a  century  later  she  reaped  from  peace  and  commerce;  En- 
gland would  have  been  spared  the  burden  of  seven  hundred  mil- 
lions of  her  National  Debt.  If  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  union  of  two  such  mighty  states  under  one  govern- 
ment had  been  found  to  be  incompatible  with  the  prosperity  of 
the  American  provinces  and  the  pretensions  of  American  states- 
men, the  knot  might  have  been  gently  untied.  These  great 
kindred  nations,  instead  of  nourishing  for  two  generations  senti- 
ments of  hatred,  resentment,  scorn,  and  antipathy  towards  each 
other,  might  have  parted  with  a  mutual  desire  to  pursue  by  differ- 
ent paths  the  same  end,  and  to  accomplish  by  different  means  the 
great  objects  of  freedom,  knowledge,  and  Christianity. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  history  of  the 
world  might  have  flowed  in  a  different  course.  The  settlement 
supposed  to  have  been  made  by  Lord  Chatham  might  have  been  a 
hollow  truce,  denounced  as  soon  as  the  ashes  of  that  great  man 
were  deposited  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  struggles  of  Europe 
during  the  French  Revolution  might  have  aroused  America  to  assert 
her  independence,  and  republican  France  might  have  had  in  her 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  243 

contest  with  England  the  strenuous  aid  of  republican  America. 
The  monarchy  of  England  might  have  fallen ;  her  independence 
might  scarcely  have  survived  the  fatal  war. 

These  things  are  hidden  from  our  eyes.  We  can  perceive  that 
Lord  Chatham^  Mr.  Fox,  and  Mr.  Burke  excelled  in  wisdom  Lord 
North  and  Lord  Thurlow ',  but  how  long  the  separation  of  Ame- 
rica from  the  mother  country  might  have  been  prevented,  and  in 
what  circumstances  it  might  at  last  have  occurred,  are  matters  on 
which  science  must  fail,  and  even  speculation  must  be  vague. 


244  CORRESPONDENCE    OF        '       [^TAT.  33. 


BOOK    THE    FOURTH. 


PART  THE  FIRST. 

The  Memoirs  of  Walpole  furnish  some  accounts  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  new  Ministry,  which,  though  not  in  every  point  to  be 
relied  on,  agree  in  the  main  with  the  facts  derived  from  other  and 
authentic  sources. 

''  The  King,  though  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  taking  new 
Ministers,  was  not  at  all  disposed  to  add  grace  to  it,  nor  to  smooth 
his  condition  by  persuading  them,  whoever  they  should  be,  that 
they  were  not  utterly  unwelcome  to  him.  On  the  contrary, 
though  it  was  evident  that  Lord  Rockingham  was  the  sole  person, 
who,  by  his  extensive  connections  and  the  fairness  of  his  character, 
could  form  an  Administration  of  any  consistency,  that  very  reason 
made  the  King  determined  not  to  let  the  choice  fall  on  him.  He 
would  not  see  the  Marquis,  but,  on  the  21st,  sent  for  Lord  Shel- 
burne,  and  offered  to  place  him  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury, 
which  Lord  Shelburne  not  venturing  to  accept,  he  made  the  same 
offer  to  Lord  Gower  with  the  same  success." 

"  Lord  Shelburne,  ambitious  and  impatient  as  he  was  to  attain 
that  eminence,  stood  on  too  narrow  a  bottom  to  venture  to  close 
with  his  wishes.  Followers  of  property  he  had  none,  or  those 
so  inconsiderable  that  they  gave  him  no  weight.  The  Duke  of 
Grafton  was  the  only  peer  of  consequence  with  whom  he  was  con- 
nected, yet  a  man  who  had  been  Prime  Minister  was  not  likely 
to  prove  a  zealous  second,  nor  was  Grafton's  temper  pliable,  or  to 
be  relied  on.  Lord  Camden's  eloquence,  character,  and  integ- 
rity made  him  by  far  the  most  considerable  of  Lord  Shelburne's 


1782.]  .         CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  245 

friends.  Mr.  Dunning  was  a  most  able  lawyer,  and  Colonel  Barr6 
as  able  a  tool ;  but  all  these  could  not  form  an  Administration,  or 
be  called  a  party.  I  should  add,  that  Lord  Shelburne  had  made 
most  considerable  enemies,  which  Lord  Rockingham  had  not.  He 
had  never  omitted  an  occasion  of  insulting  Lord  Mansfield,  who 
by  marriage  had  always  kept  on  the  fairest  terms  with  Lord 
Rockingham  ',  and  to  Lord  North,  Lord  Shelburne's  contempt 
had  been  so  marked,  that  it  exasperated  him  more  than  the  in- 
vectives of  Charles  Fox.'' 

^'  Lord  Grower,  not  without  a  wish  of  being  Premier,  was  too 
indolent,  or  too  timid  to  accept  the  post ;  and  though  he  was  in  a 
manner,  from  the  nonage  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  head  of 
that  connection,  it  had  been  so  much  weakened  and  split  since 
the  death  of  the  late  Duke,  that  Lord  Gower  was  far  from  sure  of 
commanding  it.'' 

"  When  Lord  North  was  removed,  who  alone  could,  from  the 
pleasantry  of  his  humor,  the  attachment  of  the  Tories,  and  the 
fairness  of  his  private  character,  have  kept  the  Administration  so 
long  together.  Lord  Rockingham  was  the  next  who  could  bring 
the  largest  accession  of  landed  property,  nobility,  and  popularity 
of  character  to  the  support  of  Government.  Indeed,  in  point  of 
character,  there  were  very  few  politicians  in  England  who  pos- 
sessed any  character  of  integrity  or  disinterestedness  at  all,  but 
the  chiefs  of  that  connection,  as  the  Cavendishes,  Sir  G-.  Savile, 
Frederick  Montague,  and  others.  The  Duke  of  Richmond,  though 
so  eminently  virtuous,  was  not  popular,  and  General  Conway,  im- 
maculate as  the  whitest  of  them,  would  never  enlist  in  any  fac- 
tion, nor  allow  any  to  call  him  theirs." 

^'  This  summary  is  so  true,  that  Lord  Shelburne  himself  was 
aware  of  it,  and,  reporting  the  King's  ofler  to  him  to  Lord  Rock- 
ingham, said,  'My  lord,  you  could  stand  without  me,  but  I  could 
not  without  you.'  This  was,  perhaps,  the  justest  reflection  Shel- 
burne ever  made  in  his  life,  and  had  he  not  forgotten  it,  he  might 
have  mollified  the  indisposition  of  Lord  Rockingham's  friends 
towards  him,  and   succeeded   to  Lord  Rockingham's   power — I 

21* 


246  '  CORRESPONDENCE    OF       '       [^TAT.  83. 

mean  succeeded  with  stability.     But  forgetting  his  own  reflection, 
he  converted  his  allies  into  bitter  enemies/' 

"The  King,  defeated  as  he  was,  could  not  bear  to  submit,  nor 
did  the  rest  yield  with  the  facility  of  Lord  North.  It  was  given 
out,  to  encourage  steadiness  in  others,  that  the  Duke  of  Montague 
had  offered  to  resign  his  place  of  Master  of  the  Horse,  if  it  would 
accommodate  his  Majesty  in  acquiring  a  friend.  It  was  thought 
that  the  King  saw  Lord  Bute^  on  that  occasion ;  for  Mackenzie  he 
certainly  sent ;  and  the  last,  and  Wedderburne,  had  very  private 
interviews  with  the  Chancellor,  though  great  hostility  had  passed 
between  the  latter  and  Wedderburne.  When  they  could  meet,  it 
was  evident  how  very  distasteful  it  would  be  to  the  Court  to  admit 
a  Whig  Administration." — H.  w. 

"  When  the  King  could  form  no  corps  strong  enough  to  exclude 
the  Opposition,  he  again  sent  for  Lord  Shelburne  [and  had  another 
private  communication  with  him].  Shelburne  sent  word  to  Lord 
Rockingham  that  he  had  been  with  the  King,  but  would  not 
disclose  what  passed,  as  it  would  only  exasperate  Lord  Rocking- 
ham more — as  if  that  softened  it  V  "  Shelburne,  in  the  mean 
time,  made  a  most  bitter  invective  in  the  House  of  Lords  against 
the  Lords  North  and  Stormont — an  absurd  impolicy  to  exaspe- 
rate more  part  of  the  Court,  into  which  he  was  going  to  fling 
himself!" 

"  In  short,  not  to  dwell  on  days  and  hours,  the  King  consented 
to  take  Lord  Rockingham  and  his  lordship's  arrangements,  but — 
is  that  credible  ? — would  not  see  him.  All  was  transacted  by  the 
medium  of  Lord  Shelburne.  He  carried  the  messages  backwards 
and  forwards.  Lord  Rockingham  was  indignant,  but  his  friends 
persuaded  him  to  bear  it,  and  when  all  the  changes  were  settled, 
on  the  27th,  Lord  Rockingham  was  admitted  to  an  audience  of 
the  King,  and  accepted  the  Administration." 

1  "Whatever -was  thouglit,  I  believe,  nay,  I  think  I  know,  that  he  did  not, 
either  on  that  or  any  other  occasion,  after  the  formation  of  the  Rockingham 
Administration  in  1765,  except  once,  and  then  it  was  by  the  contrivance 
of  the  Princess  Dowager  at  Kew,  without  the  King's  previous  knowledge 
and  with  his  subsequent  displeasure. — Y.  H. 


p 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  247 

"The  new  Cabinet  consisted  of  Marquis  of  Rockingham  as 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury ;  Lord  J.  Cavendish,  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  [most  reluctantly  as  he  professed] ;  Lord  Shelburne 
and  Charles  Fox,  Secretaries  of  State  ;  Lord  Camden,  President 
of  the  Council ;  Duke  of  Grafton,  Privy  Seal )  General  Conway, 
Commander-in-Chief;  Admiral  Keppel,  First  Lord  of  Admiralty; 
Duke  of  Richmond,  Ordnance;*  and  Dunning,  made  a  peer, 
Chancellor  of  the  Duchy.  With  this  entirely  new  Cabinet, 
joined  the  old  Chancellor,  Thurlow,  whose  abilities  the  new  Min- 
isters thought  too  considerable  to  drive  into  Opposition." 

"  If  Lord  Shelburne  had  waved  the  first  post,  he  proved  that 
he  at  least  shared  the  power.  Besides  two  great  posts  for  Lord 
Camden  and  Duke  of  Grafton,  he  got  a  peerage  for  Dunning, 
created  Lord  Ashburton,  with  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  and  a  pen- 
sion of  4000Z.  per  annum.  Colonel  Barre  was  made  Treasurer 
of  the  Navy,  a  post  destined  for  the  Lord  Advocate  Dundas;  nor 
was  that  all  he  did  for  Colonel  Barre,  as  will  soon  appear ;  nor 
was  his  share  of  the  Cabinet  inconsiderable,  by  his  own  vote  and 
those  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  Lords  Camden  and  Ashburton,  not 
to  mention  that  having  more  of  the  King's  favor  than  Lord  Rock- 
ingham, the  Chancellor,  it  was  likely,  would  incline  the  same 
way." — H.  w. 

Walpole  relates  the  grant  of  three  garters  to  Dukes  of  Rich- 
mond, and  Devonshire,  and  Lord  Shelburne — to  the  disappoint- 

*  The  Duke  of  Richmond  refused  to  accept  unless  the  King  would  say 
he  had  no  objection  to  him,  to  which  the  King  had  assented,  though  the 
Duke  and  Charles  Fox  were  the  tAvo  he  had  most  wished  to  exclude.  As 
the  Duke's  friend,  I  earnestly  wished  him  to  support  and  act  vigorously 
with  the  new  Administration,  but  to  take  nothing.  It  would  have  placed 
him  in  a  high  light,  and  silenced  much  clamor,  nor  do  I  think  I  could 
have  condescended  to  accept  a  post  under  a  prince  whom  I  had  taxed  with 
breaking  his  word  with  me.  I  am  persuaded  he  did  not  accept  the  Ord- 
nance for  the  emoluments,  but  from  activity  and  love  of  business,  and 
from  thinking  he  could  correct  abuses,  which  he  did  very  soon  with  inde- 
fatigable industry  ;  I  was  as  little  pleased  with  his  taking  the  Garter.  It 
is  so  easy  for  a  Duke  of  PJchmond  to  have  it,  that  I  thought  he  would  be 
moi'e  distinguished  by  neglecting  it. — H.  Vv. 


248  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

ment  of  Lord  Dartmouth  and  Lord  Ashburnham,  to  whom  the 
King  had  promised  them.  Lord  Dartmouth  acquiesced,  Lord 
Ashburnham  was  indignant,  though  the  latter's  place  was  pre- 
served for  him,  while  Lord  Hertford,  Lord  Beauchamp,  and  many 
other  courtiers  lost  theirs — "by  which,"  says  Walpole,  "what  the 
King  lost  the  country  gained ;  for  courtiers  perceived  that  royal 
amity  was  no  insurance  of  their  places,  and  returned  to  the  old 
style  of  connecting  themselves  with  Ministers.'^ 

He  then  mentions  the  two  peerages,  one  to  Keppel,  and  the 
other  to  Howe,  censures  the  favors  bestowed  on  the  Howes,  to 
whom  "  no  party  owed  gratitude  ;"  and  adds — 

"  Many  to  whom  distinctions  were  due.  Lord  Rockingham  had 
not  the  power  of  serving.  Mr.  Burke's  reforming  bill,  which  had 
saved  but  a  trifle  to  the  public,  distressed  his  party  by  cutting  off 
many  small  places.  Thus  the  new  Administration  was  very  nar- 
row, though  in  general  more  popular  than  could  be  expected,  con- 
sidering how  much  the  nation  had  been  set  against  them  on  the 
false  accusation  of  their  supporting  the  Americans,  though  the 
truth  was,  the  Americans,  so  far  from  thinking  themselves  sup- 
ported by  them,  looked  on  themselves  as  abandoned." 

"  There  was  one  of  the  former  Administration  who  might  have 
been  saved,  if  he  had  pleased — Lord  Carlisle.  Charles  Fox  and 
he  had  been  intimate  from  school,  and  in  the  height  of  Fox's  ex- 
travagance and  distress  from  gaming  debts,  Lord  Carlisle  had  been 
bound  for  him.  Fox,  mindful  of  his  obligations,  had  obtained  to 
have  Lord  Carlisle  left  Lord-Lieutenant  of  L-eland;  but  the  latter, 
warm  and  haughty  as  any  Howard  could  be,  and  prompted  by  his 
secretary,  Eden,  who  had  devoted  himself  to  Lord  North,  no 
sooner  heard  of  the  revolution  than  he  sent  over  his  resignation, 
and  demanded  to  be  recalled.  This  vacancy  accommodated  Lord 
Bockingham,  who  immediately  dispatchad  the  Duke  of  Portland 
to  take  the  government  of  L-eland." 

Lord  Weymouth  was  made  Grroom  of  the  Stole  at  Lord  Shel- 
burne's  recommendation,  and  with  Lord  Bockingham's  acquiescence. 
\¥alpole  adds:  "The  late  Court  were  so  secure  of  Shelburne's  dis- 
position to  them,  that  the  Lord  Advocate  [Dundas]  said  to  Lord 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  249 

Northj  '■  You  should  not  let  your  friends  abuse  Slielburne,  for  he 
is  ours;^  but  North  was  not  at  all  disposed  to  cement  that  union." 

"  One  promising  young  man  in  the  Opposition  the  public  ex- 
pected to  see  advanced — William  Pitt ;  but  he  refused  all  prefer- 
ment. What  was  offered  to  him  I  do  not  know,  nor  whether  any 
post  was  specified.'^ 

"  I  have  said  that  the  new  Ministers  either  would  not  or  could 
not  pass  so  much  as  a  censure  on  their  very  criminal  predecessors. 
They  were  more  passive  still,  for  they  endured  rewards  to  be  heaped 
on  two  of  the  most  guilty.  Lord  North  retired  with  a  pension  of 
4000?.  per  annum;  and  Robinson,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and, 
from  Lord  North's  indolence,  a  principal  agent  in  all  business,  had 
another  pension  of  1000/.  Charles  Fox,  it  is  true,  inveighed  bit- 
terly in  the  House  of  Commons  against  the  former,  and  Sawbridge 
moved  for  a  question  on  both.  Robinson  pleaded  poverty,  and 
affected  it  by  letting  his  house  and  selling  his  coach-horses,  though, 
till  questioned,  he  had  displayed  great  opulence,  and  had  just 
given  his  daughter,  with  a  large  fortune,. to  Lord  Abergavenny's 
eldest  son;  but  the  motion  was  defeated  by  the  previous  question.'^ 

April  4.  "  There  was  a  meeting  of  the  Associators  at  York. 
They  agreed  to  trust  the  new  Ministers,  at  least  for  the  present, 
and  adjourned  for  a  year  to  give  them  a  fair  trial.  A  principal 
inducement  to  this  temper  was  that  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  who 
had  given  in  to  the  wildest  visions  of  the  right  of  every  man  to 
vote  for  representatives,  had  extorted  an  unwilling  engagement 
from  his  fellows,  the  other  Ministers,  that  a  committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons  should  be  appointed  to  examine,  and,  if  they 
could  agree  on  any  system  (which  was  most  unlikely,  in  such  a 
chaos  of  opinions  and  interests,  which  last  are  opinions),  to  settle 
a  new  and  juster  mode  of  representation;  an  engagement  diverted 
by  the  subsequent  schisms,  and  forgotten  in  the  flat  rejection  of 
the  demands  of  the  Associations." 

April  8.  "  The  new  Ministers  being  rechosen,  the  House  of 
Commons  met  again,  when,  instead  of  any  crimination  produced 
by  them  against  any  of  their  predecessors,  an  attempt  was  made 
to  embarrass  the  Ministers  by  a  deed  that,  though  aimed  at  them, 


250  •     CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

might  have  produced  the  most  mischievous  consequences  and  con- 
fusions to  the  nation.  Eden,  Lord  Carlisle's  secretary,  had  posted 
over  with  the  Earl's  resignation.  So  exasperated  was  he  that,  not 
only  keeping  himself  private,  he  had  secret  intercourse  with  and 
private  incitement  from,  Lord  Loughborough,  but  he  positively 
refused  to  communicate  a  syllable  of  the  state  of  Ireland  to  Lord 
Shelburne,  the  Secretary  of  State.  On  the  contrary.  Colonel  Lut- 
terell,  an  ominous  name,  instigated  probably  by  Loughborough 
and  Eden,  rose  as  soon  as  the  House  met,  and  called  on  the  Minis- 
ters to  declare  what  measures  they  meant  to  pursue  for  pacifying 
the  disquiets  and  alarms  of  Ireland,  not  yet  satisfied  that  what  had 
been  done  for  her  was  either  substantial  or  irrevocable.  On  this 
hostile  ground  mounted  Eden,  and  in  a  passionate  speech,  ill 
covered  over  with  pretended  zeal,  called  for  a  repeal  of  the  act  of 
George  L,  which  was  the  most  grievous  link  of  their  chain  of  sub- 
jection. Unfortunately  for  this  incendiary,  a  spear,  like  that  of 
Milton's  angel,  that  touching  Satan  made  him  start  up  in  his  pro- 
per shape,  was  in  the  hand  of  Charles  Fox.  His  vehement  elo- 
quence, that  had  so  often  borne  down  Lord  North,  Sandwich,  and 
the  late  Junto,  was  now  displayed  in  detecting  and  exposing  the 
mischievous  conduct  of  Eden,  while  with  the  utmost  address  and 
discretion  he  steered  clear  of  any  offence  to  Ireland.  He  over- 
whelmed Eden  with  shame — not  with  remorse — for  though  uni- 
versal indignation  burst  on  the  head  of  Eden,  his  obstinate  pride 
would  not  recant,  nor  would  he  withdraw  his  motion  until  General 
Conway,  as  powerful  in  indignant  virtue  as  Fox  in  the  thunder  of 
abilities,  threatened  him  with  a  vote  of  censure,  which  was 
re-echoed  by  an  hundred  voices,  when,  more  terrified  than  abashed, 
he  submitted  to  waive  his  purpose." 

"  Soon  after  the  return  of  Lord  Carlisle  died  Earl  Talbot,  the 
Lord  Steward,  who  had  been  left  in  his  post  from  the  nearness  of 
his  approaching  dissolution.  The  new  Ministers  had  been  able 
to  find  but  few  places  for  many  peers  who  had  long  supported 
them  in  Opposition.  The  King  had  saved  some  beyond  the  two 
that  he  had  been  indulged  to  protect,  as  the  Duke  of  Dorset  and 
Lord  Oxford.     Yet  was  not  one  of  the  new  Minister's  friends 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  251 

thought  on  for  the  Steward's  wand.  Lord  Shelburne,  who  was 
seeking  to  fortify  himself  against  the  Rockingham  division  by 
potent  friends,  offered  the  stick  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and, 
though  the  Duke  declined  it,  gained  him.  Charles  Fox,  not 
thinking  his  debt  of  gratitude  yet  paid,  solicited  for  Lord  Carlisle, 
and  procured  him  to  be  appointed  Lord  Steward.^' 

We  must  now  haye  recourse  to  other  sources  for  letters  and 
papers  illustrative  of  the  internal  state  of  the  Ministry. 

[On  the  12th  of  April,  Mr.  Fox  writes  to  Fitzpatrick  :]  "  We 
had  a  Cabinet  this  morning,  in  which,  in  my  opinion,  there  were 
more  symptoms  of  what  we  had  always  apprehended,  than  had 
ever  hitherto  appeared.  The  subject  was  Burke's  bill,  or  rather 
the  message  introductory  to  it.  Nothing  was  concluded,  but  in 
Lord  Chancellor  there  was  so  marked  an  opposition,  and  in  your 
brother-in-law^  so  much  inclination  to  help  the  Chancellor,  that  we 
got  into  something  very  like  a  warm  debate.  I  told  them  I  was 
determined  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  crisis,  as  I  am,  and  I  think  a 
few  days  will  convince  them  that  they  must  yield  entirely.  If 
they  do  not,  we  must  go  to  war  again,  that  is  all;  I  am  sure  I  am 
ready.  Lord  Camden  is  entirely  with  us,  but  seems  to  have  a 
horrible  apprehension  of  debates  or  divisions  amongst  ourselves. 
Conway,  I  am  afraid,  is  likely  to  be  caught  with  the  idea  of  the 
King's  doing  part  of  the  business  without  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
which  is  not  so  very  objectionable  in  itself,  but  as  it  makes  a  con- 
siderable delay  before  the  thing  appears  in  public,  and  delay  will 
possibly  be  interpreted  lukewarmness  in  us  by  any  persons  who 
are  at  all  suspicious.  Therefore,  this  idea  I  think  very  insidious, 
and  we  must  guard  against  it.  The  King  appears  more  and  more 
good-humored  every  day,  and  I  believe  is  really  pleased  with  the 
full  levees  and  drawing-rooms,  which  he  sees  every  day,  and  which 
he  thinks  flattering  to  him;  perhaps  I  am  deceived  in  this,  but  I 
really  think  so.  He  either  is,  or  pretends  to  be,  very  angry  with 
your  predecessor,^  but  seemed  very  anxious  that  Carlisle  should 
feel  as  he  ought  on  that  subject,  I  only  mention  this  to  show  the 
ton  he  takes  with  us.'' 

'  Lord  Shelbiu-ne.  ■  ^  ]\ir.  Eden. 


252  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

[On  the  15tli,  he  writes  again :]  "  We  have  had  another  very 
teasing  and  wrangling  Cabinet ;  but  I  rather  think  everything  is 
or  will  be  settled  right.  I  am  to  carry  a  message  to-day  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  looks  and  points  to  Burke's  bill.  The 
King  is,  in  the  first  instance,  to  abolish  of  his  own  accord  the 
offices;  but  that  abolition  is,  in  every  instance,  to  have  the  sanc- 
tion of  an  Act  of  Parliament  for  the  appropriation  of  the  money, 
the  preventing  their  revival,  &c.  Lord  Chancellor,  as  you  may 
imagine,  dislikes  it.  Lord  S.^  seems  more  bothered  about  it  than 
anything  else,  does  not  understand  it,  but,  in  conjunction  with 
Lord  Ashburton,  rather  throws  difficulties  in  its  way.  General 
Conway  quite  with  us  in  the  general  view,  but  unfortunately 
doubts  in  almost  every  particular  instance.  Lord  Camden,  evi- 
dently with  us  in  his  mind,  yet  is  so  terribly  afraid  of  dissensions 
that  he  does  not  do  us  all  the  good  he  might.  The  Duke  of 
Grafton  rather  hostile,  though  professing  ri(/ht  princi2:)Ies  in  the 
strongest  terms,  but  full  of  little  projects  of  his  own,  and  trouble- 
some in  the  extreme ;  the  remaining  five^  just  as  you  would  ex- 
pect and  wish.  This  is  a  tolerably  accurate  sketch  of  our  councils, 
but  I  have  no  doubt  but  things  will  jumble  themselves  into  some- 
thing more  to  our  mind,  or  come  to  a  crisis  the  other  way.  In- 
deed, if  they  do  not,  it  will  be  very  uneasy  to  me,  and  to  every- 
body. We  met  yesterday  at  eleven,  and  did  not  get  to  the 
drawing-room  till  four,  when  it  was  over.  All  this  time  the  King 
seems  in  perfect  good-humor,  and  does  not  seem  to  make  any  of 
those  difficulties  which  others  make  for  him." 

[On  the  28th,  he  says] :  "  With  respect  to  affairs  here,  they 
are  really  in  such  a  state  as  is  very  difficult  to  describe;  I  feel 
them  to  be  worse  than  they  were,  and  yet  I  do  not  know  what 
particular  circumstance  to  state  as  the  cause  of  this  feeling. 
Shelburne  shows  himself  more  and  more  every  day,  is  ridicu- 
lously jealous  of  my  encroaching  on  his  department,  and  wishes 

'  Lord  Shelburne. 

2  The  "remainmg  five"  were  Lord  Rockingham,  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond, Lord  John  Cavendish,  Admiral  Keppel,  and  Mr.  Fox  himself. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  253 

very  mucli  to  encroach  upon  mine.  He  hardly  liked  my  having 
a  letter  from  Grattan,  or  my  having  written  one  to  Lord  Charlc- 
mont.  He  affects  the  Minister  more  and  more  every  day,  and  is, 
I  believe,  perfectly  confident  that  the  King  intends  to  make  him 
so.  Provided  we  can  stay  in  long  enough  to  have  given  a  good 
stout  blow  to  the  influence  of  the  Crown,  I  do  not  think  it  much 
signifies  how  soon  we  go  out  after,  and  leave  him  and  the  Chan- 
cellor to  make  such  a  Government  as  they  can,  and  this  I  think 
we  shall  be  able  to  do." 

[On  the  1st  May,  he  gives  an  account  of  the  debate  in  the 
Lords  on  the  Contractors'  Bill :]  "  We  have  to-night  carried  the 
Contractors'  Bill  in  the  House  of  Lords,  by  a  majority  of  67  to 
39.  The  Chancellor  began  the  opposition,  and  was  not  satisfied 
with  speaking  his  opinion,  but  called  on  the  Lords,  who  had 
formerly  been  against  it,  to  stand  by  their  former  votes,  and  in 
short,  spoke  as  violently  and  hostilely  as  it  is  possible  to  conceive. 
The  Duke  of  Richmond  answered  him,  and  there  was  a  good  deal 
of  sparring  between  them,  in  which  the  Duke  of  Richmond  had 
notoriously  the  advantage.  Lord  Camden  spoke  extraordinarily 
well,  and  declared  the  fate  of  the  Ministry  depended  upon  that  of 
the  Bill.  Lord  Gower  spoke  against  us,  but  declared  himself 
shaken  in  some  degree  by  Lord  Camden's  argument,  for  that  all 
the  hopes  of  the  country  were  in  the  abilities,  &c.,  of  the  present 
Ministers,  to  whom  he  paid  many  compliments.  Only  four 
bishops  were  with  us,  viz.,  Peterborough,  St.  Asaph,  Carlisle, 
and  Lichfield  (Lord  Cornwallis's  brother).  Three  Scotch  peers, 
viz.,  Lothian,  Aberdeen,  and  Roseberry.  Lord  Carlisle  did  not 
stay,  but  will,  I  believe,  be  with  us,  and  be  Lord  Steward  to- 
morrow. I  wait  for  a  messenger  to  tell  you  all  that  has  passed 
upon  this  subject;  but  he  is  in  good-humor,  and  likely,  perhaps, 
to  be  more  with  21s  than  you  can  conceive.  I  am  sure  we  are,  as 
things  now  stand,  absolutely  bound  to  support  him,  with  regard 
to  the  Steward's  place;  and  if  we  are  not  able,  we  ought  to  be  no 
longer  Ministers.  Shelburne  paid  compliments  to  the  Chan- 
cellor, which  very  much  scandalized  all  good  men." 

We  now  return  to  Walpole. 
VOL.  I. — 22 


254  COKRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

April  15.  On  King's  Message  on  economy,  "  Burke  in  the 
Commons,  and  Lord  Shelburne  in  the  Lords,  were  ridiculously 
extravagant  in  panegyrics  on  his  Majesty  for  this  magnanimity, 
which  certainly  was  no  measure  of  his,  but  an  artifice  of  their 
own,  and  but  a  shallow  one,  to  persuade  the  people  that  they 
meant  to  adhere  to  their  former  principles,  while  their  flattery 
was  rather  a  symptom  that  they  would  not." 

"  I  have  said  that  the  new  Ministers  were  distressed  for  want 
of  places,  to  satisfy  their  friends ;  yet  to  the  honor  of  their  party 
it  should  be  told,  that  neither  at  this  period,  nor  that  of  the  ensu- 
ing year,  did  they  lose  many  from  want  of  power  to  serve  them. 
The  party  not  only  saw  that  it  was  not  their  fault,  but  that  the 
King  did  all  he  could  to  add  to  their  embarrassments,  by  with- 
holding whatever  he  could.  In  these  difficulties,  Lord  Rocking- 
ham behaved  with  more  zeal  and  decency  than  Lord  Shelburne. 
An  instance  of  the  latter' s  impolitic  insensibility  appeared  in  the 
case  of  Lord  Cholmondeley — and  in  fact,  artful  as  Lord  Shelburne 
affected  to  be,  it  is  certain  that  his  art  was  so  clumsy,  so  gross,  so 
ill-timed,  and  so  contradictory  to  itself,  that  he  could  not  have 
fallen  as  soon  as  he  did,  if  he  had  had  no  art  at  all.  Lord  Chol- 
mondeley had  peculiarly  attached  himself  to  him.  Not  being  able 
to  provide  for  him,  instead  of  excusing  himself,  he  congratulated 
Lord  Cholmondeley  on  remaining  independent,  which  was  felt  as 
an  insult.^     I  have  mentioned  his  flattery  to  the  King.     He  went 

'  Lord  Cholmondeley  had  mucli  impaired  his  fortune  by  dice  and  dis- 
sipation, and  though  an  associate  of  Mr.  Fox  and  his  friends,  had  thought 
it  a  better  game  to  attach  himself  in  politics  to  Lord  Shelburne.  From 
some  motive,  possibly  from  no  unreasonable  apprehension  that,  in  case  of 
a  rupture  with  his  colleagues,  Cholmondeley's  habits  and  friendships  might 
outweigh  his  political  professions  and  attachments,  Lord  Shelburne  pre- 
ferred providing  for  Lord  Tankerville  to  securing  Lord  Cholmondeley ; 
and  he  took  a  method  of  reconciling  the  latter  to  his  lot,  which  showed 
that  he  had  no  great  knowledge  of  his  character,  or  addi-ess  in  adapting 
his  topics  to  it.  He  attempted  to  talk  him  over  by  recommending  the 
"grand  independent  line,"  to  live  "like  a  respectable  nobleman,"  to 
"  marry  a  little,"  and  many  other  phrases,  which  Cholmondeley,  who  had 
no  taste  for  greatness,  independence,  respectability,  marriage,  or  the  like, 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  255 

farther,  and  told  the  Chancellor  that  he  was  amazed  at  the  genius 
he  found  in  the  King !  The  Chancellor  laughed  in  his  face,  and 
instead  of  reporting  it  to  the  King,  as  Shelburne  expected,  told  it 
to  everybody  else  with  contempt/' 

May  3.  "The  Middlesex  election  was  at  last  rescinded. 
Charles  Fox,  who  had  always  opposed  that  correction,  made  a 
most  manly  and  fair  defence  of  himself  on  that  occasion.'^ — H.  w. 

Walpole,  on  the  5th  of  May,  writes  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Horace 
Mann  :  "  Mr.  Fox  already  shines  as  greatly  in  place  as  he  did  in 
Opposition,  though  infinitely  more  difficult  a  task.  He  is  now  as 
indefatigable  as  he  was  idle.  He  has  perfect  temper,  and  not  only 
good-humor,  but  good-nature ;  and,  which  is  the  first  quality  in  a 
Prime  Minister  of  a  free  country,  has  more  common  sense  than 
any  man,  with  amazing  parts  that  are  neither  ostentatious  nor 
aifected.  Lord  North  had  wit  and  good-humor,  but  neither 
temper,  nor  feeling,  nor  activity,  nor  good  breeding.  Lord  Chat- 
ham was  a  blazing  meteor,  that  scattered  war  with  success,  but 
sunk  to  nothing  in  peace.  Perhaps  I  am  partial  to  Charles  Fox, 
because  he  resembles  my  father  in  good  sense ;  I  wish  he  had  his 
excellent  constitution,  too.  Yet  his  application  to  business  may 
preserve  his  life,  which  his  former  dissipation  constantly  endan- 
gered.''—H.  w. 

Walpole  lost  his  notes  of  what  passed  in  the  rest  of  Lord  Rock- 
ingham's Administration,  but  adds,  "  The  material  [features  of 
the  Administration]  were  the  masterly  abilities  of  Charles  Fox, 
and  the  intrigues  of  Lord  Shelburne ;  the  former  displayed  such 
facility  in  comprehending  and  executing  all  business,  as  charmed 
all  approached  him.     No  formal  afiectation  delayed  any  service, 

scarcely  understood,  though  he  thought  it  for  a  season  very  fine.  When, 
however.  Hare,  Charles  Fox,  and  Fitzpatrick  heard  his  report,  and  he 
from  their  comments  collected  that  he  should  "get  nothing  from  Shel- 
burne and  be  laughed  at  by  them,"  he  waxed  as  furious  as  his  nature 
could  be,  but  being  very  good-humored,  as  well  as  very  shabby  and 
interested,  he  could  not  help  laughing  himself  at  the  ridiculous  figure 
he  made,  and  has  related  it  more  than  once  to  me  as  well  as  to  others. — 
V.  H. 


256  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

or  screened  ignorance.  He  seized  at  once  the  important  points  of 
every  affair^  and  every  affair  loas  thence  reduced  within  a  small 
compass,  not  to  save  himself  trouble,  for  he  at  once  gave  himself 
vp  to  the  duties  of  his  office.'^  His  good-humor,  frankness,  and 
uncerity  pleased,  and  yet  inspired  a  respect,  which  he  tooh  no 
other  pains  to  attract.  The  foreign  ministers  were  in  admiration 
of  him :  they  had  found  few  who  understood  foreign  affairs,  or 
who  attended  to  them,  and  no  man  who  understood  French  so 
well,  or  could  explain  himself  in  so  few  words." — H.  W. 

"  While  Fox  thus  unfolded  his  character  so  advantageously, 
Shelburne  was  busied  in  devoting  himself  to  the  King,  and  in 
traversing  Lord  Rockingham  and  Fox  in  every  point.  If  they 
opened  a  negotiation,  he  commenced  another  underhand  at  the 
same  court.  Mr.  Fox  dispatched  Thomas  Grenville  to  Paris. 
Lord  Shelburne  sent  one,  two,  or  three  privately  to  the  same 
place,  and  addressed  them  to  different  Ministers  or  persons  of 
supposed  credit." — ii.  w. 

On  the  7th  of  May,  Fox  writes  to  Fitzpatrick  :  "  William  Pitt 
moved  for  a  committee  upon  representation  to-day.  The  House 
is  just  up.  For  the  motion  141,  against  it  161,  so  that  we  are 
beat,  though  Lord  John,  &c.,  all  voted  with  us.  The  country 
gentlemen  were  against  us,  Powys,  Marsham,  &c.'' 

[Sketches  of  the  impressions  made  by  an  important  debate  are 
generally  interesting,  and  the  reader  may  like  to  see  a  short  ac- 
count of  this  debate  from  a  letter  of  G-eneral  Burgoyne  to  Mr. 
Fitzpatrick,  of  the. 8th  of  May:]  "  We  had  yesterday  a  strange 
day,  upon  Pitt's  motion  for  an  inquiry  into  the  representation ; 
friend  against  friend  among  us  :  on  the  other  side,  the  late  Minis- 
try voted  in  phalanx.  Lord  North  and  Robinson  excepted,  who 
were  absent ;  Burke  retired  quite  against  us  in  opinion )  Powys 

^  He  never  touched  a  card,  and  was,  during  all  his  three  short  Adminis- 
trations (till  his  fatal  illness),  assiduous  in  his  duties,  yet  never  trouble- 
some or  harsh  to  those  under  him,  nor  unnecessarily  busy  or  meddling, 
in  little  matters — a  fault  in  office  as  frequent  and  as  mischievous  as 
indolence. — V.  H. 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  257 

was  against  us ;  T.  Pitt  violently  so,  and  took  the  lead  in  the 
Opposition.  The  Advocate  spoke  long,  ill  for  him,  but  offensively 
against  Charles.  He  seems  to  have  taken  up  that  line  of  late. 
Charles  in  his  very  first  form,  and  Sheridan  much  above  any- 
thing he  has  yet  done  in  the  House :  I  think  I  never  heard  more 
wit  than  part  of  his  speech  against  the  Advocate.  We  lost  the 
question  by  20." 

[Mr.  Burke  was  prevailed  upon  to  absent  himself  from  this  dis- 
cussion; but  in  a  subsequent  debate  he  appears  to  have  expressed 
himself  warmly,  if  not  violently,  on  the  general  question.]  "  On 
Friday  last  [says  Sheridan  to  Fitzpatrick  in  a  letter  of  the  20th 
of  May],  ^'  Burke  acquitted  himself  with  the  most  magnanimous 
indiscretion,  attacked  W.  Pitt  in  a  scream  of  passion,  and  swore 
Parliament  was  and  always  had  been  precisely  what  it  ought  to 
be,  and  that  all  people  who  thought  of  reforming  it  wanted  to 
overturn  the  constitution."  [The  occasion  for  making  this  speech 
was  the  motion  of  Alderman  Sawbridge  for  shortening  the  dura- 
tion of  Parliaments.] 

The  following  letter  of  Mr.  Fox,  written  on  the  11th  of  May, 
exhibits  the  progress  of  dissension  and  mutual  alienation  in  the 
Ministry;  and  if  on  the  one  hand  it  shows  how  Mr.  Fox  could  be 
mistaken  in  his  estimate  of  character,  on  the  other  hand  it  places 
in  a  favorable  point  of  view  his  political  foresight  and  sagacity. 
"  With  respect  to  things  here,  many  unpleasant  circumstances 
have  happened  this  week.  Our  having  been  beat  upon  Pitt's 
motion  will,  in  my  opinion,  produce  many  more  bad  consequences 
than  many  people  seem  to  suppose,  among  which  the  kind  of  spirit 
and  confidence  which  it  has  given  to  the  old  Ministerialists  is  per- 
haps not  the  least.  The  very  thin  attendances  which  appear  on 
most  occasions  are  very  disheartening  and  sometimes  embarrassing 
to  me.  Upon  the  bill  for  securing  Sir  Thomas  Rumbold's  pro- 
perty, we  were  only  36  to  33.  The  Attorney  and  Solicitor-Grcne- 
ral  were  both  against  me,  and  I  had  the  mortification  to  depend 
for  support  upon  Lord-Advocate,  Jenkinson,  and  Mansfield.  The 
first  of  these,  upon  Pitt's  motion,  chose  to  speak  in  the  most 
offensive  manner  to   me  personally,  by  marking,  in    the   most 

22=*= 


258  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

pointed  way,  the  different  opinion  he  entertained  of  the  purity  of 
Pitt's  intentions  and  of  mine.  I  know  most  people  think  that  he 
has  taken  ill  some  things  that  I  have  said,  and  that  all  this  is  only 
warmth  in  consequence ;  but  I  own  I  cannot  help  suspecting  that 
he  means  to  show  that  he  does  not  consider  me  as  a  person  who 
has  power  to  hurt  him,  and  that  he  is  very  well  with  those  who 
have;  for  he  always  calls  himself  a  supporter  of  the  present 
Grovernment,  and  has,  I  am  pretty  sure,  established  a  sort  of  con- 
nection with  your  brother-in-law.  Lord  Rockingham's  illness, 
which  is  now  over,  has  prevented  me  from  bringing  this  matter  to 
the  crisis  to  which  it  must  come,  and  shall  come,  if  I  am  to  remain 
the  King's  Minister  in  the  House  of  Commons.  You  will  easily 
perceive  by  this  letter  that  I  am  out  of  humor,  and  you  know  me 
enough  to  know  I  am  not  inclined  to  be  so  without  reason."  [He 
adds  afterwards:]  "I  have  given  you  but  a  small  part  of  the 
cause  of  my  ill-humor,  when  I  have  confined  myself  to  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  House  of  Lords  has  been  the  most  shameful 
scene  you  can  imagine.  The  Duke  of  Richmond,  in  points  where 
he  was  clearly  right,  has  been  deserted  by  every  Minister  present 
more  than  once.  Lord  Rockingham  and  Lord  Keppel  were 
absent." 

"  Carlisle  received  the  staff  on  Sunday,  and  is,  I  believe,  in  per- 
fect good-humor.  The  history  of  that  transaction  is  a  most  curious 
one.  Lord  Rockingham  offered;  Lord  Carlisle,  after  some  time 
to  consider,  accepts ;  and  then  Lord  S.  says,  he  had  thought  of  it 
for  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  that  something  at  least  must 
be  done  for  Lord  Charles  Spencer  before  this  matter  is  settled.  I 
talked  to  him  very  roundly  upon  this  affair,  and  of  course  he  and 
his  friend  gave  way,  and  the  thing  was  done,  only  less  graciously 
than  it  ought.  In  short,  everything  that  we  apprehended  upon 
this  subject  is  true  even  beyond  our  apprehensions;  it  must  be 
our  business  to  preserve  our  credit  and  character,  which  I  think 
we  cannot  lose  [but]  by  our  own  faults,  and  which  is  most  dearly 
indeed  all  that  we  have  to  stand  upon.  He  thinks,  I  know  he 
does,  that  he  has  other  ground.  How  it  will  bear  him,  ?7  fattt 
voir.     That  he  will  not  delay  long  trying  it  I  very  much  believe, 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  259 

especially  if  we  should  be  fortunate  enough  to  make  a  peace, 
which  I  do  not  wish  for  less  ardently  than  I  did,  although  I  am 
convinced  that  in  signing  it  I  shall  sign  the  end  of  this  Ministry. 
Faisons  noire  devoiTj  arrive  qui  pourraj  is  the  maxim  which  pru- 
dence as  well  as  honesty  must  dictate  to  us.  You  recommended 
me  to  keep  up  my  attention  to  two  great  political  persons,  and  I 
have,  I  do  assure  you,  spared  no  pains  to  follow  your  advice. 
With  respect  to  the  first  in  rank  of  the  two,  I  have  succeeded  to 
my  utmost  hopes,  so  much  so,  that  if  we  fail  in  his  object,  I  am 
sure  he  will  be  rather  displeased  at  others  than  at  us.  I  like  him 
better  every  day )  he  is  natural,  open,  and  remarkably  free,  at 
least  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  from  those  meannesses  which  from  his 
blood  and  his  situation  might  be  expected.^  I  wish  I  could  say  I 
was  quite  as  well  satisfied  in  regard  to  the  other  person,  who  is 
perhaps  the  most  material  of  the  two.  He  is  very  civil  and 
obliging,  profuse  of  compliments  in  public;  but  he  has  more  than 
once  taken  a  line  that  has  alarmed  me,  especially  when  he  dis- 
suaded against  going  into  any  inquiries  that  might  produce  heats 
and  differences. 2  This  seemed  so  unlike  his  general  mode  of 
thinking,  and  so  like  that  of  another,  that  I  confess  I  disliked  it 
to  the  greatest  degree.  I  am  satisfied  he  will  be  the  man  that 
the  old  system,  revived  in  the  person  of  Lord  S.,will  attempt 
to  bring  forward  for  its  support.  I  am  satisfied  he  is  incapa- 
ble of  giving  into  this  with  his  eyes  open;  but  how  he  may  be  led 
into  it  step  by  step  is  more  than  I  can  answer  for.  I  feel  myself, 
I  own,  rather  inclined  to  rely  upon  his  understanding  and  in- 
tegrity for  resisting  all  the  temptations  of  ambition,  and  especially 
of  heivg  first,  which  I  know  will  be  industriously  thrown  in  his 
way,  and  contrasted  with  that  secondary  and  subordinate  situation 
to  which  they  will  insinuate  he  must  be  confined  while  he  con- 
tinues to  act  in  the  general  system." 

[On  the  18th,  he  writes  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick :]  ^^  Nothing  has 
happened  much  to  alter  my  opinion  from  what  is  contained  in  my 
letter  of  this  day  se'nnight ;  Lord  Scarborough's  death  has  occa- 

'  I  confess  I  am  at  a  loss  to  say  who  this  is.  ^  ]vjj.,  pjtt. 


260  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

sioned  another  little  manege,  just  like  that  about  the  Steward's' 
staff,  and  I  foresee  it  will  end  as  that  did.  Lord  Robert  will  have 
it,  but  he  will  have  it  the  latter  end  of  next  week,  instead  of  the 
beginning  of  this  as  he  ought  to  have  had  it.  Indeed,  if  every 
vacancy  that  happens  is  to  occasion  as  much  negotiation  as  these 
two  have  done,  it  will  be  a  pleasant  business  for  those  who  have, 
or  ought  to  have,  the  disposal  of  them.'' 

[Another  short  letter  from  Mr.  Fox  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  while  the 
latter  remained  in  Ireland,  has  been  preserved;  but  it  contains  no 
allusion  to  domestic  politics,  and  as  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  returned  to  En- 
gland in  the  middle  of  June,  their  correspondence  was  necessarily 
brought  to  a  close.  In  the  absence  of  other  information,  it  may 
therefore  be  worth  while  to  insert  the  following  letter  from  Mr. 
Hare,  because  it  shows  the  view  taken  of  Mr.  Fox's  position  by 
one  of  his  most  intelligent  and  confidential  friends.  After  men- 
tioning the  change  in  Mr.  Fox's  mode  of  life,  his  seldom  looking 
in  at  Brookes's  and  never  dining  there,  and  humorously  describing 
the  disappointment  of  those  who  had  paid  up  arrears  of  four  or 
five  years'  subscription,  that  they  might  enjoy  the  society  of  a 
■  Minister,  he  goes  on  to  say :]  "  The  Advocate  has,  on  so  many 
occasions,  shown  such  hostility,  mixed  with  a  great  degree  of 
arrogance,  if  not  impertinence,  towards  Charles,  that  Charles,  with 
all  his  good-nature  and  forbearance,  has  been  rather  exasperated 
against  him.  I  thought  it  proceeded  from  the  Advocate's  being 
out  of  humor  at  the  late  reverse  in  his  fortunes,  and  apt  to  take 
offence  when  none  was  meant;  but  Charles  suspected  it  was  a  con- 
certed scheme  between  the  Advocate  and  a  friend  of  yours,  whom 
I  need  not  name.  Charles  sent  a  civil  message  to  the  Advocate 
by  the  Duke  of  Buccleugh,  and  he  returned  a  very  general,  vague 
answer,  which  convinced  Charles  that  his  suspicion  was  founded. 
I  literally  have  not  spoken  to  Charles  for  some  days,  and  do  not 
know  whether  anything  more  has  passed;  but  when  I  last  talked 
with  Charles,  he  was  determined  that,  if  the  Advocate  persisted 
in  this  improper  behavior,  he  should  be  turned  out,  or  that  he, 
Charles,  would  go  out.  What  made  this  conduct  in  the  Advocate 
more  alarming  was  that  William  Pitt,  one  day  after  Charles  had 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  261 

declared  the  state  of  the  nation  to  be  in  all  respects  more  distress- 
ful than  he  had  imagined,  and  the  conduct  of  the  late  Ministers 
more  culpable  in  rejecting  all  offers  of  mediation  or  neglecting  all 
overtures  of  peace,  and  after  he  had  declared  that  these  things 
must  be  inquired  into;  William  Pitt  agreed  with  the  Advocate, 
who  had  objected  to  any  inquiry,  on  the  pretence  that  it  would 
cause  altercation,  revive  animosity,  and  take  up  too  much  of  the 
time  of  Ministers,  and  he  totally  differed  from  Charles  in  every- 
thing that  he  had  said  on  the  subject.     This  circumstance  very 
much  increased  our  suspicion  that  the  Advocate's  hostility  was 
systematical,  and  concocted  not  a  hundred  miles  from  Berkeley 
Square.    Since  I  wrote  this  I  have  seen  Charles,  who  has  received 
a  message  from  the  Advocate  by  Lord  Maitland,  to  assure  him 
that  he  never  meant  any  incivility  to  him,  and  that  on  the  con- 
trary he  was  the  person  amongst  his  Majesty's  Ministers  to  whom 
he  bore  the  most  entire  good-will.     We  shall  see  how  he  will  act 
up  to  these  professions  in  public.    The  moment  Lord  Scarborough 
was  dead.  Lord  Rockingham  wrote  to  the  King  at  Windsor  to 
recommend  Lord  Robert  Spencer  for  his  place,  but  received  for 
answer  that  it  had  better  be  given  to  Lord  Charles.     Lord  Rock- 
ingham persists  for  Lord  Robert,  and  Lord  Shelburne  will  cer- 
tainly fail  getting  it  for  Lord  Charles,  by  which  means  he  flattered 
himself  he  should  lay  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  under  an  obliga- 
tion.    They  must  come  to  some  explicit  agreement  about  patron- 
age and  recommendations  to  places,  for,  besides  the  ill-will  that 
this  competition  excites,  the  time  of  the  Cabinet  is  as  much  taken 
up  in  settling  the  Vice-treasuryship  as  the  kingdom  of  Ireland. 
You  have  seen  by  the  papers  that  the  Chancellor  opposed  the 
contractors'  and  the  Cricklade  bills.     Crewe's   bill  was   in  the 
House  of  Lords  yesterday,  and  he  said  he  should  reserve  his  op- 
position to  it  for  the  third  reading,  but  that  if  anybody  wished  to 
divide  against  it  in  that  stage  he  was  ready.     He  intends  likewise 
to  oppose  the  bill  for  restraining  Sir  T.  Rumboldt  from  leaving 
the  kingdom,  and  from  concealing  or  alienating  any  part  of  his 
property — in  short,  to  oppose  everything  that  is  attempted  by  the 
new  Government.     Irish  affairs  come  on  in  both  Houses  to-mor- 


262  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [.ETAT.  33. 

row,  and  I  shall  not  be  surprised  if  he  endeavors  to  work  mis- 
chief; but  if  he  does,  I  hope  they  will  see  the  necessity  of  turning 
him  out." 

[No  further  correspondence  has  been  preserved  that  carries  on 
the  history  of  these  dissensions  to  the  end  of  the  Eockingham 
Administration,  but  that  they  continued  unabated  to  the  last,  is 
clear  both  from  Fitzpatrick's  journal,  and  from  the  letters  of 
General  Burgoyne  and  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  written  to  Mr. 
Fox  before  they  were  aware  of  his  resignation.  General  Bur- 
goyne, in  a  letter  of  the  5th  of  July,  after  describing  the  deep 
affliction  of  the  Duke  of  Portland  on  the  intelligence  of  Lord 
Kockingham's  death,  and  his  "apprehensions  from  the  present 
state  of  the  Cabinet,"  suggests  him  as  a  fit  person  to  succeed  that 
nobleman  in  the  Treasury,  as  well  as  in  the  principal  lead  of  the 
party;  and  concludes  by  saying  to  Mr.  Fox:]  "Upon  an  occasion, 
which  seems  to  threaten  a  speedy  dissolution  of  the  Administra- 
tion, I  cannot  refrain  from  repeating  (though  I  think  it  unneces- 
sary) my  devotion,  my  invaluable  friend,  to  your  fortunes,  and 
there  will  be  no  sacrifices  in  my  sphere  that  will  not  be  made  with 
pleasure  when  thought  necessary."  [The  Duke  of  Portland  writes 
on  the  following  day :]  "  You  will  not  be  surprised  at  my  not 
being  able  to  write  to  you  yesterday.  I  received  the  fatal  letter 
on  Thursday  evening,  and  have  scarcely  now  recovered  that  state 
of  composure  which  is  necessary  for  the  arrangement  of  my 
thoughts.  Little  time  or  consideration,  however,  are  requisite  for 
directing  our  conduct  in  the  present  critical  and  important  mo- 
ment. Confidence  I  conceive  to  be  wholly  out  of  the  question; 
power  must  be  taken  as  its  substitute,  and  unless  you  can  possess 
that,  and  convince  the  public  of  your  possessing  it,  both  your 
honor  and  duty  to  the  country  dictate  your  retreat.  My  opinion 
may  possibly  and  indeed  may  most  probably  be  too  late,  for  I 
cannot  but  suppose  upon  recollection  that  the  fate  of  Administra- 
tion is  by  this  time  decided.  I  own  I  tremble  for  the  event, 
because  I  see  inevitable  and  complete  ruin,  the  consequence  of 
the  restoration  of  the  late  system.  I  thank  you  sincerely  for  your 
letter  of  the  28th.    The  event  it  announced  the  probability  of  has 


1782.]  CHAELES   JAMES   FOX.  263 

been  long  (comparatively  with  your  political  existence)  expected 
by  me ;  and  my  ideas  of  its  having  happened  will  appear  by  the 
direction  of  this  letter  to  you  in  your  private  capacity.  If  Richard 
brings  me  the  account  I  expect,  I  suppose  there  can  be  no  impro- 
priety in  my  applying  for  a  release  in  peremptory  terms,  and  that 
I  may  consider  myself  at  liberty  as  soon  as  the  session  is  con- 
cluded." 

[NEGOTIATIONS  FOR  PEACE.] 

[Before  proceeding  to  the  breaking  up  of  the  Kockingham 
Administration,  it  will  be  necessary  to  revert  to  the  negotiations 
for  peace,  in  which  Mr.  Fox  was  incessantly  and  actively  engaged 
during  the  short  period  he  remained  in  office.  When  the  Rock- 
ingham party  came  into  power,  Great  Britain  was  engaged  in 
hostilities,  not  only  with  her  revolted  colonies,  but  with  France, 
Spain,  and  Holland,  and  was  embarrassed  besides  by  the  preten- 
sions of  the  armed  neutrality,  to  which  most  of  the  non-belli- 
gerent powers  had  given  their  accession.  France  and  the  United 
States  were  bound  by  treaty  not  to  make  peace  separately.  Spain 
and  Holland  had  not  acknowledged  the  United  States,  and  had 
contracted  no  engagements  with  them.  The  first  object  of  Mr. 
Fox  was  to  open  a  separate  negotiation  with  Holland,  through  the 
mediation  of  Russia.  At  a  Cabinet  Council,  held  on  the  28th  of 
March,  the  day  after  the  Ministry  came  into  office,  the  following 
minute  was  agreed  to  :  ^] 

"  Present : — Lord  Chancellor,  President,  Lord  Privy  Seal, 
Duke  of  Richmond,  Lord  Rockingham,  Lord  Shelburne,  Lord 
Ashburton,  General  Conway,  Admiral  Keppel,  Mr.  Fox,  Lord 
John  Cavendish. 

"It  is  humbly  recommended  to  his  Majesty  to  direct  Mr.  Fox 
to  acquaint  M.  Simolin  that  the  King  is  willing  to  enter  into 
treaty  of  peace  with  Holland,  upon  the  footing  of  free  navigation, 
according  to  the  treaty  of  1764,  and  that  for  the  purpose  of  faci- 
litating such  treaty  his  Majesty  is  willing  to  agree  to  the  imme- 

'  From  a  copy  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Fox. 


264  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [iETAT.  33. 

diate  cessation  of  hostilities,  if  that  should  be  deemed  an  expedient 
measure  by  their  High  Mightinesses." 

[This  offer  seems  to  have  been  communicated  to  the  Dutch 
government  by  M.  Simolin  (the  Russian  Minister  in  London), 
without  waiting  for  instructions  from  St.  Petersburg ;  for,  on  the 
12th  of  April,  it  was  known  to  Dr.  Franklin,  at  Paris/  and  on 
the  same  day  Mr.  Fox  writes  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick :]  "  You  will  have 
seen  how  handsomely  the  Russians  have  supported  my  offer. 
People  here  are  very  sanguine  about  peace  with  Holland;  / 
doubt  J"  This  doubt  was  but  too  well  founded.  On  the  21st  of 
April  he  writes  again  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  "No  chance,  I  fear,  of 
peace  with  Holland."] 

[When  this  proposal  was  first  conveyed  to  the  Empress,  she 
seems  to  have  entered  into  it  with  eagerness.  On  the  21st  of  May 
the  King  writes  to  Mr.  Fox :  ^]  "  Undoubtedly,  the  appearances 
in  Russia  are  as  favorable  on  the  Dutch  affairs  as  the  most  san- 
guine mind  could  expect,  and  the  levity  of  the  Court  alone  gives 
distrust  as  to  the  final  issue.  I  have  also  some  fear  that  Mr. 
Grenville's  negotiation  at  Paris  will  cause  some  disgust,  as  the 
joint  mediation  at  Vienna  is  one  of  her  favorite  projects."  [But 
the  good  offices  of  the  Empress  seem  to  have  been  accompanied 
by  proposals  to  which  his  Majesty  was  not  prepared  to  accede. 
On  the  15th  of  June  the  King  writes  to  Mr.  Fox:]  "There  is 
no  doubt  but  the  Empress  of  Russia  seems  to  continue  in  better 
humor;  but  there  are  points  in  the  communication  of  so  serious  a 
nature — and  that  must  affect  so  much  in  futurity — that  I  am  cer- 
tain Mr.  Fox  must  see  the  propriety  of  laying  this  dispatch  of 
Sir  James  Harris  before  the  Cabinet  before  he  offers  me  any 
opinion  on  the  subject,  and,  consequently,  takes  any  step  in  it  and 
in  the  communication  M.  de  Simolin  will  make." 

[Accordingly,  on  the  26th  of  June  a  Cabinet  was  held,  and  the 
following  minute  agreed  upon]  :^ 

1  Franklin's  Works,  by  Sparks,  ix.  206. 

2  In  the  lianchvriting  of  George  III. 

2  From  a  copy  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Fox. 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  265 

^'Present — Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  President,  Lord  Privy  Seal, 
Duke  of  Richmond,  Lord  Shelburne,  Lord  John  Cavendish,  Lord 
Keppel,  Lord  Ashburton,  General  Conway,  Mr.  Fox. 

"  It  is  humbly  recommended  to  his  Majesty  to  direct  Mr.  Fox 
to  acquaint  M.  Simolin  that  his  Majesty  is  desirous  of  entering 
fully  into  the  ideas  of  the  Empress,  and  to  form  the  closest  con- 
nections with  the  Court  of  Petersburg,  and  that  his  Majesty  is 
willing  to  make  the  principles  of  her  Imperial  Majesty's  declara- 
tion of  the  28th  February,  1780,  the  basis  of  a  treaty  between 
the  two  countries. 

"  It  is  further  humbly  recommended  to  his  Majesty  to  direct 
Mr.  Fox  to  acquaint  M.  Simolin  with  the  substance  of  the  in- 
structions to  Mr.  Grrenville,  as  the  best  method  of  letting  the 
Court  of  Petersburg  know  that  ultimatum  which  she  asks.^' 

[That  the  answer  returned  did  not  meet  the  wishes  of  the  Court 
of  St.  Petersburg  appears  from  the  private  letter  sent  with  it 
from  Mr.  Fox  to  Sir  James  Harris.] 

St.  James's,  June  29,  1782. 

^^  Dear  Sir  : — 

"  I  return  you  many  thanks  for  your  private  letter,  which  per- 
fectly convinced  me,  but  unfortunately  not  others,  so  that  the  an- 
swer is  as  you  will  see ;  however,  it  is  not  such  a  one  as  to  offend, 
and  I  have  endeavored  in  the  manner  to  make  it  such  as  to  keep 
up  the  good  disposition  at  your  Court.  I  hope  you  will  endeavor 
to  represent  it  as  like  a  complete  complaisance  as  the  thing  will 
bcar.^     I  shall  send  a  courier  in  a  few  days. 

"  I  am, 
^^  Dear  sir,  yours  ever, 

"C.  J.  FOX." 

[The  reply  of  Sir  James  Harris  to  this  private  communication 
did  not  reach  England  till  Mr.  Fox  was  out  of  office.  It  is  never- 
theless worth  while  to  preserve  it,  as  it  contains  the  opinion  of  a 

1  Cipher. 
VOL.  I. — 23 


266  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  33. 

very  able  diplomatist  on  the  expediency  at  that  moment  of  our 
acknowledging  the  principles  of  the  armed  neutrality,] 

[Private.]  "Peteksburg,  July,  1782. 

"  Dear  Sir  : — 

'^I  have  many  thanks  to  return  you  for  your  private  letter 
of  the  29th  of  June.  You  encourage  me  to  be  prolix  (perhaps 
troublesome)  and  officious.  I  had  great  satisfaction  in  hearing 
you  approve  what  I  had  written  relative  to  the  expediency  of  a 
recognition  of  the  principles  of  the  armed  neutrality.  Besides 
the  immediate  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  measure  so  very 
flattering  to  the  Empress,  I  am  convinced,  in  my  own  mind,  that 
such  a  recognition  would  contribute  to  annul  the  ill  effects  of  this 
new-fangled  doctrine,  and  that  a  perseverance  on  our  part  to 
oppose  is  the  surest  method  of  giving  it  permanency  and  con- 
sistency. 

^^  It  is  in  itself  so  contrary  to  the  Czarina's  ideas  of  self-defence, 
that  none  of  the  members  of  the  league  (particularly  Russia) 
ever  can  possibly  adhere  to  its  principles,  if  engaged  in  a  mari- 
time war,  and  we,  it  is  hoped,  never  shall  again  find  ourselves  in 
the  same  isolated  situation  we  now  stand  in. 

"  The  Dutch  and  Portuguese  already  enjoy  by  treaty  this  free 
trade.  The  Danes  are  tied  up  by  the  explanatory  article ;  and 
the  remaining  maritime  states  cannot,  from  the  diversity  of  their 
interests,  ever  reap  any  advantage  from  it  in  a  future  day ;  and 
it  is  impossible  that  Kussia  and  Sweden,  Prussia  and  Austria, 
should  not  act  against  each  other  if  once  a  system  is  established 
in  Europe,  and  the  establishment  of  such  a  system  seems  now  to 
be  a  general  wish. 

^'  It  may  be  observed,  too,  that  all  the  powers  in  Europe  unit- 
edly enjoy  at  this  moment — in  fact,  if  not  by  right — the  privi- 
leges we  deny  them.  They  have  all  subscribed  to  the  neutral 
league,  and  it  is  idle  for  us  to  dispute  its  validity.  We  may  in- 
deed contest  its  equity,  but  we  must  submit  to  the  law  it  imposes. 
I  again,  too,  repeat,  that  it  will  acquire  vigor  and  duration  from 
persecution ;  and,  as  I  was  sure  at  first  that  we  might,  by  a  well- 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  267 

timed  compliance,  have  stifled  it  in  its  infancy,  I  am  now  satisfied 
we  should,  in  a  great  measure,  stop  its  growth,  by  a  frank  and 
unconditional  acquiescence.  A  new  order  of  things  would  arise, 
and  this  production  vanish,  and  necessarily  fall  to  the  ground,  in 
the  formation  of  a  more  rational  and  salutary  system. 

"  I  must  add  that  the  Empress  is  equally  irritable  and  obsti- 
nate on  this  point ;  that  it  is  the  sheet-anchor  of  our  adversaries, 
and  the  only  hold  they  have  left.  As  long  as  we  oppose  it,  a 
perpetual  motive  of  discontent  will  exist  between  the  two  courts. 
I  shall  never  be  able  to  produce  any  good,  and  all  my  endeavors 
must  be  employed  to  prevent  evil. 

"  I  should  think  the  most  advisable  mode  of  avowing  these 
principles,  if  his  Majesty  consents  to  it,  is  by  an  act  of  accession 
to  the  neutral  league  with  the  Empress  alone,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  Emperor  has  done  and  the  Court  of  Lisbon  is  about  to  do. 
It  would  be  more  consistent  with  our  national  dignity  than  a 
public  recognition  of  them  (which  would  seem  to  proceed  from 
fear) ;  and  it  would  be  highly  agreeable  to  the  Ministers  here. 
You  will  not  forget.  Sir,  that  this  is  a  private  letter,  in  which  I 
give  my  private  opinion ;  and  that,  in  the  mean  time,  I  shall  spare 
no  pains  to  derive  every  possible  advantage  from  the  measures 
already  proposed,  and  to  incline  the  Empress  to  agree  to  the 
conditions  we  held  out. 

^'  They  are  very  sufficiently  advantageous  to  her,  but  arguments 
founded  on  plain  sense  and  sound  reasoning  are  not  always  list- 
ened to. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 
^''  Most  respectfully  and  sincerely,  dear  Sir, 
'^  Your  most  obedient  faithful  servant, 

''JAMES  HARRIS." 

[Qreat  Britain  had  been  left  destitute  of  continental  allies  by 
the  Peace  of  1763,  and  the  successive  Administrations  that  fol- 
lowed, occupied  with  domestic  squabbles,  or  engaged  in  a  frantic 
contest  with  our  American  colonies,  had  been  negligent  of  foreign 
politics.     Mr.  Fox  was  sensible  of  this  error.     One  of  the  first 


268  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

objects  of  his  Administration  was  to  renew  our  connections  with 
the  continent ;  and  one  of  his  first  attempts  was  to  form  a  defeli- 
sive  confederacy  in  the  North,  by  uniting  Russia  and  Prussia  with 
England,  in  opposition  to  the  exorbitant  ambition  and  insolent  pre- 
tensions of  the  House  of  Bourbon.  With  that  view  he  seems  to 
have  written  the  following  letter  for  the  King  of  Prussia.  Through 
what  channel  it  was  to  be  conveyed  does  not  appear,  nor  is  it  cer- 
tain that  it  was  ever  sent,  though,  from  allusions  in  the  following 
year  to  what  had  passed  at  this  period,  it  probably  was.  At  all 
events  it  deserves  insertion  in  this  work,  as  it  contains  an  exposi- 
tion of  Mr.  Fox's  views  on  foreign  policy  in  1782.  His  advances 
were  received  by  his  Prussian  Majesty  with  civil  expressions,  and 
assurances  of  personal  esteem  and  regard.  The  King  of  Prussia 
was,  in  truth,  too  old  and  too  cautious  to  embark  in  new  and 
hazardous  undertakings.  Jealous  of  the  Emperor,  afraid  of  Rus- 
sia, and  inclined  in  his  heart  to  France,  though  deterred  by  her 
Austrian  connection,  he  desired  nothing  more  than  to  end  his  days 
in  peace  and  tranquillity.] 

[PRIVATE  LETTER  OF   MR.  FOX,  WRITTEN  IN  ORDER  TO  BE 
COMMUNICATED  TO  THE  KING  OF  PRUSSIA.] i 

^'  Les  assurances  que  vous  m'avez  donnees,  Monsieur,  de  I'amitie 
que  le  Roi  votre  maitre  porte  h  la  nation  anglaise,  m'encouragent 
a  vous  ecrire  de  mon  chef,  et  sans  avoir  consulte  personne,  avec  la 
plus  entiere  confiance,  sur  I'etat  actuel  des  affaires  de  ce  pays  ci. 
Nous  sommes  accables  du  nombre  et  de  la  force  de  nos  ennemis, 
et  quelque  belle  et  glorieuse  que  sera  la  defense  que  nous  comptons 
faire  centre  une  confederation  aussi  puissante  que  celle  que  nous 
attaque,  11  est  h  craindre,  que  cette  gloire  ne  nous  coute  bien  cher, 
et  que  nous  ne  nous  trouvions  epuis^s  par  les  efforts  que  nous 
ferons  quand  meme  les  ^venemens  prissent  une  tournure  plus  favor- 
able que  nous  n'avons  raison  d'esperer.  II  est  vrai  que  les  em- 
barras  ou  nous  nous  trouvons  ne  sent  que  le  fruit  des  fautes  sans 
nombre  que  nous  avons  faites,  et  du  mauvais  syst^me  de  politique 


'■  From  the  draft  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Fox. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  269 

que  nous  avons  d^s  longtems  suivi;  mais  il  est  vrai  aussi  que 
quelle  qu'en  soit  la  cause,  il  importe  infinimcnt  a  toutes  les  nations 
de  I'Europe  et  sur  tout  a  celles  du  Nord  d'empecher  que  nous  ne 
succombions  a  la  maison  de  Bourbon,  qui  vise  au  despotisme  de 
I'Europe  avec  des  vues  bien  plus  solides  et  mieux  fondees  que  du 
terns  de  Louis  XIV.,  quand  tout  le  monde  en  avoit  une  jalousie  si 
fondee.     Nous  nous  sommes  brouilles  avec  nos  colonies  sans  raison, 
et  apres  la  rupture  nous  nous  sommes  conduits  avec  ce  meme  esprit 
d'imprudence  et  d'erreur  qui  I'avoit  occasionnee.     Nous  avons  vu, 
sans  faire  le  moindre  mouvement  pour  I'empecber,  et  presque  sans 
en  avoir  congu  de  la  jalousie,  naitre  et  croitre  la  marine  des  Bour- 
bons que  nous  avions  quasi  ecrasee  dans  la  deruiere  guerre,  tandis 
que  nous  desarmions  la  notre  par  les  efforts  que  nous  faisions  pour 
miner  le  commerce  des  colonies,  et  que  nous  en  abusions  les  res- 
sources  dans  les  vastes  armees  de  terre  que  nous  employions  si  mal 
en  Amerique,  et  qui  ont  excite  a  la  fois  I'admiration  et  le  mepris 
de  I'Europe.     D6s  que  la  France  s'est  declaree,  dvenement  auquel 
tout  le  monde,  hormis  nos  predecesseurs,  s'attendoit  depuis  long- 
tems, au  lieu  de  concilier  I'amitie  des  puissances  Europeennes, 
nous  avons  eu  la  folic  de  nous  plonger  dans  la  guerre  d'Hollande 
absolument  sans  raison  et  quasi  sans  pretexte.     Cest  avec  bonte, 
sans  doute,  que  je  fais  un  recit  si  bumiliant  pour  ma  nation,  mais 
plus  nous  avons  ete  faibles,  plus  il  devient  le  devoir  et  I'interet  de 
ceux  qui  s'interessent  a  nous,  de  nous  aider  tant  de  conseils  que 
d'autres  moyens.     Les  suites  des  mauvais  conseils  qu'on  n'a  cess^ 
de  donner  au  Roi  depuis  le  commencement  de  son  regne,  et  d'im- 
primer  tant  qu'on  a  pu  dans  son  esprit,  ne  sont  h  present  que  trop 
apparentes  a  tout  le  monde.     Mais  malheureuseraent  le  mal  n'est 
decouvert  que  dans  un  tems  ou  il  est  bien  dijSicile  d'y  remedier. 
Qu'y  faire  ?     Si  nous  teutons  une  paix  avec  la  Hollande  nous  la 
trouvons  engagee  si  avant  avec  la  France  qu'elle  m^prise  dans  ce 
moment  les  termes  memos  qu'elle  avait  offerts  comme  base  de  la 
paix.     Avec  I'Amerique  je  crains  bien  que  nous  ne  trouvions  les 
memes  difficultes.     II  ne  reste  done  que  I'alternative  d'une  paix 
generale  ou  d'une  guerre  trop  inegale.     Quant  a  la   premiere, 
quelle  esperance   que   la   maison   de   Bourbon,   dont  I'ambition 

23* 


270  COREESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

demesuree  ne  parait  que  trop  aux  yeux  de  tout  le  monde,  veuille 
la  faire  sur  des  termes  raisonnables,  sans  compter  T humiliation 
qu'il  y  aurait  pour  T  Angleterre  a  la  lui  demander  dans  sa  position 
actuelle  ?  Mais  quand  memo  la  France  fut  plus  moderee  qu'il  n'y 
a  lieu  d'esperer,  a,  quelles  demandes  ne  faut-il  pas  s'attendre  du 
cote  de  I'Espagne  ?  N'exigera-t-elle  pas  la  cession  de  Gibraltar? 
et  Gibraltar  une  fois  cede,  ne  faut-il  pas  dire  adieu  pour  jamais  h 
toute  surete  de  commerce  dans  la  Mediterranee  pour  I'Angleterre 
et  pour  les  autres  nations  d' Europe,  qui  apr^s  cette  cession  de- 
pendront  absolument  quant  h  cet  objet  de  la  maison  de  Bourbon  ? 
Ce  n'est  pas  tout :  en  cedant  cette  place  si  heureusement  situee 
pour  diviser  et  affaiblir  les  forces  navales  des  Bourbons,  ne  perdrons 
nous  pas  un  avantage  dans  la  guerre  qu'il  est  impossible  d'appre- 
cier  ?  II  est  vrai  que  dans  celle  d'a  present  nous  ne  nous  en  som- 
nies  pas  servis  a  cet  effet,  mais  aussi  faut-il  avouer  que  tout  nous 
a  fort  mal  tourne.  S'il  y  a  toutes  ces  difficultes  pour  faire  la  paix, 
celles  qui  s'offrent  dans  la  seconde  alternative  sont  bien  plus  evi- 
denteS;  puisqu'il  ne  faut  que  compter  les  forces  de  nos  ennemis  et 
celles  que  nous  pouvons  leur  opposer  pour  en  sentir  toute  Tetendue. 
II  n'y  a  d'exemple  que  du  Boi  votre  maitre  dans  les  annales  de 
I'Europe  qui  s'est  trouve  dans  des  embarras  pareils  aux  n6tres,  et 
qui  s'en  est  tire  avec  une  gloire  que  n'appartient  qn'h  lui  seul,  et 
dont  la  renommee  universelle  fera  le  trait  le  plus  marque  dans  le 
tableau  du  siecle  ou  nous  vivons.  A  qui  done  s'adresser  si  ce 
n'est  h  lui  dont  I'amitie  nous  a  tant  valu  dans  des  tems  plus 
heureux,  qui  connait  parfaitement  I'embarras  ou  nous  nous  trou- 
vons,  qui  a  des  lumieres  pour  en  p^netrer  les  causes,  qui  seul  pent 
nous  indiquer  les  moyens  d'en  sortir,  et  qui  sans  doute  se  rappelle 
avec  complaisance  le  tems  ou  les  deux  nations  agissaient  en  con- 
cert, epoque  certainement  pas  la  moins  illustre  de  son  r^gne.  C'est 
done  a  lui  que  j'ose  demander  conseil  et  appui  dans  les  circon- 
stances  presentes. 

"  En  demandant  des  conseils  a  S.  M.  P.,  je  suis  bien  loin  de 
vouloir  lui  en  suggerer,  mais  vous  vous  attendez  peut-etre  que  je 
debite  au  moins  quelques  idees  generales  sur  les  objets  qui  se 
presentent.     D'abord  une  paix  generale  et  durable,  et  pour  etre 


1782.]  CHAULES   JAMES   FOX.  271 

durable  il  faut  qu'elle  ne  soit  point  incompatible  avec  la  dignite 
de  la  couronne  de  la  Grande  Bretagne,  ni  avec  la  liberte  du  com- 
merce de  I'Europe.  Nous  sommes  parfaitement  d'accord  que 
rindependance  de  I'Amerique  ne  doive  pas  y  mettre  d' obstacle. 
Si  cette  paix,  comme  nous  le  craignons,  ne  pent  s'accomplir  pour 
les  raisons  ci-devant  exposdes,  le  second  objet  sera  de  detacher  la 
Hollande,  ou  I'Amerique,  ou  toutes  les  deux,  de  la  maison  de 
Bourbon.  En  cas  que  nous  ne  reussissions  pas  dans  ce  second 
objet,  il  ne  nous  reste  que  de  faire  cette  guerre  inegale  dans  la 
quelle  nous  nous  trouvions  engages.  Mais  reste  a  voir  si  S.  M.  P., 
conjointementavec  les  puissances  du  Xord,  ne  pourrait  dans  ce  cas 
demander  h  la  France  enfin  ce  qu'elle  pretend  et  ou  tendent  ses 
vues.  La  Bussie  surtout  pourrait,  en  cas  que  la  Hollande  man- 
que au  respect  qu'elle  doit  a  la  mediation  de  I'lmperatrice,  s'eu- 
gager  h  proteger  des  Hollandais  le  commerce  que  nous  faisons 
avec  la  Baltique.  Si  le  Danemarque  s'y  joignait  tout  serait  dit 
de  ce  cote-la,  et  la  republique  se  trouvant  par-la  denuee  du  princi- 
pal moyen  qu'elle  a  pour  nous  nuire  serait  bientot  reduite  a  vou- 
loir  se  reconcilier  avec  ses  anciens  amis.  Je  repute  encore  que 
ce  ne  sont  la  que  des  idees  vagues  que  je  mets  sous  les  yeux  de 
S.  M.  P.,  pour  que  ses  lumi^res  superieures  les  appr^cient  et  m'en 
fassent  connaitre  la  valeur. 

"  Si  nos  ennemis  sont  reellcment  portds  pour  la  paix  les  conquetes 
que  nous  avons  faites  dans  les  grandes  Indes,  tant  sur  la  France  que 
sur  la  Hollande,  nous  donnent  de  quoi  negocier  avec  eux  sur  ce 
qu'il  nous  ont  pris  ailleurs. 

"  Si  j'osais  hasarder  mes  faibles  idees,  il  me  paraitrait  que  la  pre- 
miere demarche  que  S.  M.  P.  pourrait  faire  en  notre  faveur  ce  seroit 
de  pousser  la  Bussie  h,  soutenir  I'honneur  de  sa  mediation  et  d'etre 
un  peu  plus  attentive  aux  affaires  de  I'Angleterre  qu'elle  n'a  paru 
jusqu'ici  de  I'etre.  Cette  demarche  aurait  d'abord  I'avantage  de 
montrer  a  I'Europe  que  nous  ne  sommes  pas  delaisses  entierement, 
et  pourrait,  ce  me  semble,  mener  assez  naturellement  au  point  que 
nous  desirous. 

"  Mais  a  I'egard  des  demarches  qu'il  faudra  prendre,  et  par  ou 
Ton  doit  commencer,  je  m'en  rapporte  entierement  a  la  prudence, 
k  la  justesse,  et  a  la  profondeur  d'espritde  celui  a  qui  j'ai  la  hardiesse 


272  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  33. 

de  m'adresser.  Quoique  j'aie  ecrit  cette  lettre  sans  concert,  ni 
avec  mes  collegues,  ni  avec  personne,  je  puis  vous  assurer  que  sur 
les  points  principaux,  c'est-a-dire,  sur  la  confiance  qu'on  a  au  Roi 
votre  maitre,  et  sur  le  desir  qu'on  a  de  resserrer  entre  lui  et  S.  M. 
les  liens  d'amitie  qui  ont  ete  si  heureux  pour  tous  les  deux,  et  sur 
le  desir  sincere  de  faire  une  paix  equitable,  tous  les  ministres  du 
Roi  entretiennent  des  sentimens  conformes  h  ceux  que  j'ai  eu 
I'honneur  de  vous  exposer/' 

[NEGOTIATIONS  AT  PARIS.] 

[The  negotiations  for  peace  at  Paris  will  require  to  be  treated  at 
greater  length.     They  were  begun  by  a  private  letter  from  Dr. 
Franklin  to  Lord  Shelburne,*  with  whom  he  had  been  acquainted 
in  England,  containing  general  expressions  of  his  desire  to  co- 
operate in  the  re-establishment  of  a  general  peace.     On  receiving 
this  letter,  which  had  been  written  to  him  as  a  private  person.  Lord 
Shelburne,  now  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State,  dispatched  Mr. 
Oswald  to  Paris^  with   a  letter   to  Dr.  Franklin,  in  which   he 
described  Mr.  Oswald  as  a  '^pacifical  man,  and   conversant  in 
those  negotiations  which  are  most  beneficial  to  mankind,"  and 
^'  preferred  on  that  account  to  any  speculative  friends,  or  to  any 
persons  of  a  higher  rank."     As  an  additional  recommendation, 
Mr.  Oswald  was  furnished  with  a  letter  from  Mr.  Laurens,  then  a 
prisoner  in  England,  praising  him  as  an  old  acquaintance,  "a  gen- 
tleman of  the  strictest  candor  and  integrity,"  who  "  disinterest- 
edly engaged  in  the  business  from  motives  of  benevolence."     Dr. 
Franklin  liked  Mr.  Oswald  very  much,  and  after  presenting  him 
to   M.  de  Vergennes,  sent  him  back  to  England^  with  a  letter  to 
Lord  Shelburne,  in  which,  amidst  many  commendations  of  his 
wisdom  and  honesty,  he  expresses  his  "  desire  to  have  no  other 
communication"  with  his  lordship  "  than  that  of  Mr.  Oswald." 
The  truth  is,  Dr.  Franklin  very  quickly  discovered  that  Mr.  Oswald 
was  a  simple-minded,  well-meaning  man,  on  whom  he  could  make 
the  impression  he  chose,  and  desired  nothing  better  than  to  have 
such  a  negotiator  to  deal  with.     Such  confidence  had  he  in  Mr. 

»  March  22,  1782.  2  April  6,  1782.  ^  April  18,  1782. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FQX.  273 

Oswald  that^  at  the  moment  of  parting,  he  trusted  him  confiden- 
tially with  a  paper  to  Lord  Shelburne,  in  which,  on  pretence  of 
bringing  about  a  thorough  reconciliation  between  England  and 
America,  and  of  preventing  future  quarrels,  he  suggested  the  ces- 
sion of  Canada  to  the  United  States,  as  a  means  of  repaying  the 
injuries  done  to  American  citizens  during  the  war  by  the  English 
and  their  allies,  the  Indians,  and  of  affording  an  indemnity  to  the 
loyalists  for  the  confiscation  of  their  lands.  Mr.  Oswald  declared 
himself  satisfied  with  the  reasoning  of  the  paper,  and  promised  to 
do  his  utmost  to  impress  Lord  Shelburne  with  the  same  convic- 
tion.] 

[On  the  return  of  Mr.  Oswald  to  London,  it  was  resolved  to 
send  him  back  to  Paris,  and  the  following  Cabinet  minute  was 
agreed  to.] 

*' April  2S,nS2. 

^'Present — Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  President,  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond, Marquis  of  Ptockingham,  Duke  of  Grrafton,  Lord  Ashburton, 
Lord  John  Cavendish,  Lord  Keppel,  General  Conway,  Mr.  Fox, 
Lord  Shelburne. 

'^It  is  humbly  submitted  to  his  Majesty  that  Mr.  Oswald  shall 
return  to  Paris,  with  authority  to  name  Paris  as  the  place,  and  to 
settle  with  Dr.  Franklin  the  most  convenient  time  for  setting  on 
foot  a  negotiation  for  a  general  peace,  and  to  represent  to  him 
that  the  principal  points  in  contemplation  are — The  allowance  of 
independence  to  America  upon  Great  Britain's  being  restored  to 
the  situation  she  was  placed  in  by  the  treaty  of  1763,  and  that 
Mr,  Fox  shall  submit  to  the  consideration  of  the  King  a  proper 
person  to  make  a  similar  communication  to  Mons.  de  Vergennes." 

[The  conduct  of  foreign  affairs  in  England  was  at  that  time 
divided  between  the  two  Secretaries  of  State;  the  one  having  what 
was  called  the  southern,  and  the  other  the  northern  departments. 
By  this  unhappy  arrangement  the  negotiations  of  the  two  Secre- 
taries could  not  fail  to  clash,  when  part  of  the  business  to  be  done 


274  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

belonged  to  tlie  northern,  and  part  to  the  southern  departments; 
and  nothing  could  prevent  such  collision  but  a  perfectly  good 
understanding  between  the  two  Secretaries  of  State,  which  in  the 
present  occasion  did  not  prevail.  Mr.  Oswald  was  sent  to  Dr. 
Franklin,  and  Mr.  Grenville  to  M.  de  Yergennes,  and  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  his  heart  Mr.  Oswald  revealed  to  Mr.  Grrenville  conversa- 
tions he  had  had  with  Franklin,  which  Lord  Shelburne  had  not 
communicated  to  Mr.  Fox.  Of  the  commencement  of  this  double 
negotiation,  an  account  is  given  by  Mr.  Fox  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Fitz- 
patrick.  The  sequel  will  appear  in  the  letters  of  Mr.  Grrenville 
and  in  Mr.  Fox's  replies.] 

[On  the  28th  of  April,  Mr.  Fox  writes  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick :] 
'^Shelburne  has  had  an  answer  from  Dr.  Franklin,  who  seems 
much  disposed  to  peace,  if  general.  Mons.  de  Yergennes  has,  it 
seems,  expressed  the  same  sentiments,  and  wishes  to  have  some 
opening  from  hence  :  in  consequence  of  this,  Shelburne's  man  is 
to  go  back  this  day  to  Paris,  and  upon  the  pretence  of  the  business 
having  begun  with  the  American  Ministers  he  had  a  great  mind, 
if  I  would  have  consented,  to  have  kept  even  this  negotiation  in 
his  own  hands ;  but  this  I  would  not  submit  to,  and  so  Grenville 
is  to  set  out  for  Paris  to-morrow  or  next  day,  in  order  to  state 
our  ideas  of  peace  to  Mons.  de  Yergennes.  Whether  anything 
will  come  of  this,  one  cannot  tell.  I  think  it  will  all  depend  upon 
this  point,  whether  the  French  like  peace  enough  to  make  them 
influence  the  Spaniards  to  be  reasonable,  for,  with  respect  to 
France,  I  still  think  there  cannot  be  many  diJSiculties." 

[Mr.  Oswald  reached  Paris  on  the  4th  of  May,  and  had  several 
conversations  with  Franklin  before  Mr.  Grenville's  arrival  on  the 
8th.  In  these  conversations,  he  reported  to  Franklin  that  he  had 
communicated  his  private  and  confidential  paper  to  Lord  Shel- 
burne, on  whom  it  seemed  to  "have  made  an  impression,"  that  he 
(Oswald)  "  had  reason  to  believe  that  matter  might  be  settled  to 
our  satisfaction  (that  of  America),  but  in  his  own  mind  he  did  not 
wish  it  to  be  mentioned  at  the  beginning."^ 

[Mr.  Grenville  shall  tell  his  own  story.] 

'  Franklin's  Works,  by  Sparks,  vol.  is.  pp.  265-270. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  275 


''Pakis,  May  10. 

"Dear  Charles: — 

"  The  very  tiresome  dispatch  I  have  just  been  sending  you,  and 
which  I  thought  it  however  not  proper  to  abridge,  has  hardly  left 
me  the  use  of  my  arm,  to  write  to  you,  though  it  is  highly  import- 
ant I  should  do  so. 

"The  language  of  Monsieur  de  Yergennes,  his  manner,  and 
those  little  expressions  which  it  is  easier  to  feel  the  force  of  than 
to  put  into  a  dispatch,  seem,  as  far  as  one  can  judge  in  two  pretty 
long  conversations,  to  promise  a  most  ungovernable  extent  to  the 
sense  of  the  two  terms  he  repeats  so  often,  justice  and  dignity; — 
that  he  wishes  for  peace,  I  do  believe,  but  that  the  expectation  of 
our  being  obliged  to  make  peace  as  a  country,  and  most  particu- 
larly of  your  being  obliged  to  make  peace  to  support  your  new 
Administration,  is  what  makes  great  part  of  his  desire  for  peace,  I 
cannot  but  believe  likewise.  Every  expression  that  M.  D'Aranda 
and  he  used  to-day  were  those  of  a  very  close  pruning;  the  first, 
however,  did  not  this  morning  hint  anything  of  Gibraltar,  but 
neither  did  he,  as  he  said,  allow  himself  hardly  to  speak  upon  the 
subject  of  peace  till  he  had  powers.  He  expects  his  courier  back 
about  this  day  three  weeks,  or  perhaps  rather  sooner;  in  this 
state  of  things,  you  will  have  a  good  deal  to  determine  upon  within 
a  few  days,  for  you  will  see  the  necessity  of  my  being  fully  ap- 
prised of  your  intentions  before  I  shall  be  again  called  upon,  as  in 
the  conversations  I  have  had  I  have  already  gone  pretty  near  the 
extent  of  my  instructions.  It  seems,  I  think,  certain  that  when 
M.  D'Aranda's  powers  come,  Mr.  Jay  likewise  will  arrive,  and  all 
the  persons  requisite  being  then  at  Paris,  whoever  comes  from 
you  will  be  called  upon  to  make  overtures.  Will  the  same  be 
made  with  those  in  my  instructions?  If  they  are,  you  must,  I 
think,  see  that  they  will  not  probably  even  set  the  business  a-going. 
If  you  mean  to  make  others — have  you  decided  upon  the  extent 
of  them  and  the  form  iu  which  they  are  to  be  put,  whether  stated 
as  preliminary  articles,  or  only  ideas  suggested  by  which  to  form 
hem?     You  will  perhaps  be  surprised  at  my  first  letters  contain- 


276  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  33. 

ing  so  many  queries,  and  expect  that  the  post  from  Paris  should 
assist  you  in  answering  them,  but  yet  you  see  that,  as  things  now 
stand,  there  is  scarce  a  probability  of  my  being  able  to  get  any- 
thing from  M.  de  Yergennes  and  D'Aranda  till  the  period  I  men- 
tion, and  therefore  that  your  determination  must  probably  be  made 
upon  what  you  now  know.  Mr.  Walpole,  who,  though  a  little  disap- 
pointed, seems  disposed  to  give  me  every  assistance  he  can,  seems, 
I  think,  persuaded  that  they  will  run  too  hard  upon  us ;  if  so, 
would  it  be  wise  to  lower  one's  self  by  humiliating  offers  which  will 
not  be  received,  because  they  are  not  sufficiently  humiliating? 
Perhaps  you  will  say,  let  us  see  what  it  is  they  want;  let  us;  but 
let  us  do  it  without  coming  near  enough  to  their  proposition  to  be 
disgraced  by  it.  If  it  is  likely  to  be  so  disgraceful  as  that  we  can- 
not embrace  it,  and  be  benefited  by  accepting  it,  would  it  not,  per- 
haps, be  more  manly  and  more  dignified  to  state  at  once  the  extent  of 
what  reasonable  and  supportable  concessions  can  be  made  ?  (for 
concessions  there  must  be.)  Shall  we  not  by  that  have  the  same 
prospect  of  succeeding  in  a  treaty,  and  the  most  respectable  retreat 
from  it  if  it  should  fail  ?  I  will  not  tire  you  with  more  questions, 
but  let  me  know  what  you  think  of  those  I  have  made  you.  I 
shall  say  nothing  more  about  myself  than  recommending  to  you, 
for  your  own  sake  as  well  as  mine,  to  consider  my  ignorance  of 
this  sort  of  business,  should  it  take  any  extent ;  and  how  advisable, 
in  that  case,  or  rather  how  indispensable,  that  you  should  have  here 
somebody  of  knowledge,  as  well  as  of  confidence.  Mr.  Oswald 
and  I  are  upon  very  good  terms,  but  you  will  naturally  see  why 
his  assistance  is  not  always  that  which  can  be  useful  to  me.  I  am 
not  now  speaking  with  an  affectation  of  modesty,  therefore  pray 
think  seriously  of  it.  M.  de  Vergennes  told  me  to-day,  I  must 
not  talk  of  Charlestown,  for  we  had  ordered  it  to  be  evacuated. 
I  told  him  very  truly  I  knew  nothing  of  the  matter.  It  is  believed, 
in  Paris,  that  M.  de  Grasse  is  gone  to  St.  Domingo,  and  that  there 
will  still  be  an  attack  upon  Jamaica ;  the  French  schemes,  I  hear, 
are  rather  at  a  stand  as  to  sending  troops  to  North  America,  and 
that  the  present  idea  is  only  to  keep  up  the  force  that  they  have. 
Lafayette  is  not  gone.     I  breakfast  with  him  at  Franklin's  at  nine 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    EOX.  277 

to-morrow  morning;  it's  now  past  three,  and  I  am  quite  tired  with 
writing,  so,  I  believe,  is  the  messenger  with  waiting.  I  was  asked 
to-day,  whether  there  was  not  a  great  disunion  between  the  Duke 
of  Eichmond  and  Lord  Shelburne?  Good-night;  if  anything 
worth  sending  the  other  messenger  for  occurs,  I  will  send  him ;  if 
not,  I  will  write  by  the  post,  though  only  one  line,  as  it  is  sure  of 
being  opened. 

^'The  courier  has  a  letter  for  Lord  Shelburne  from  Oswald,  one 
for  Lord  Camden  from  Walpole,  and  one  for  Lord  Shelburne,  and 
another  for  you  from  Franklin. 

"  Very  affectionately  yours, 

<'T.  G." 

[On  the  14th,  Mr.  Oswald  returned  to  London,  and  Franklin, 
though  disappointed  at  "  the  little  he  had  been  able  to  draw  from 
him  of  Lord  Shelburne's  sentiments,"  in  his  letter  to  that  noble- 
man, expresses  regret  for  his  departure,  and  hopes  of  his  return.^ 

On  the  18th  of  May  the  following  minute  was  agreed  to  by  the 
Cabinet : — ^ 

"Gkosvexor  Square,  May  18,  1782. 

^^  Present — Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  President,  Duke  of  llich- 
mond,  Lord  Rockingham,  Lord  Shelburne,  Lord  John  Cavendish, 
Lord  Keppel,  Lord  Ashburton,  General  Conway,  Mr.  Fox. 

"It  is  humbly  submitted  to  your  Majesty,  that  your  Majesty 
will  be  pleased  to  direct  Mr.  Fox  to  order  full  powers  to  be  given 
to  Mr.  Grenville  to  treat  and  conclude  at  Paris,  and  also  to  direct 
*I\Ir.  Fox  to  instruct  Mr.  Grenville  to  make  propositions  of  peace 
to  the  belligerent  powers  upon  the  basis  of  independence  to  the 
thirteen  colonies  in  North  America,  and  of  the  treaty  of  Paris; 
and  in  case  of  such  proposition  not  being  accepted,  to  call  upon 
Monsieur  de  Yergennes  to  make  some  proposition  on  his  part, 
which  Mr.  Grenville  will,  of  course,  report  to  Mr.  Fox." 

1  Franklin's  Works,  by  Sparks,  vol.  is.  p.  286. 

2  In  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Fox. 

VOL.  I. — 24 


278  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 


MR.  FOX  TO  THE  KING. 

"Mr.  Fox  has  the  honor  of  transmitting  to  your  Majesty  the 
minute  of  the  Cabinet  Council  assembled  this  morning  at  Lord 
Rockingham's.  Mr.  Grenville  will,  no  doubt,  make  a  proper  use 
of  the  very  important  news  of  this  day,  upon  which  Mr.  Fox  begs 
leave  to  take  this  opportunity  of  congratulating  your  IMajesty; 
but,  in  general,  Mr.  Fox  thinks  it  his  duty  to  submit  it  to  your 
Majesty,  that  your  Majesty's  servants  have  proceeded  upon  this 
occasion  rather  upon  the  supposition  that  the  present  negotiation 
for  peace  will  fail,  and  that  the  measures  which  they  humbly 
recommend  to  your  Majesty  upon  this  occasion  are  directed  more 
with  a  view  to  the  use  which  may  be  made  of  them,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  detaching  from  France  her  present  allies,  and  of  concili- 
ating the  powers  of  Europe  to  this  country,  than  to  the  object  of 
success  in  the  present  treaty  with  the  Court  of  Versailles.  If 
Monsieur  de  Vergennes  should  reject  Mr.  Grenville's  proposals, 
and  should  either  decline  making  any  on  his  part,  or  make  such 
as  should  be  evidently  inadmissible,  your  Majesty's  servants  can- 
not help  flattering  themselves  that  such  a  conduct,  on  the  part  of 
the  Court  of  Versailles,  may  produce  the  most  salutary  effects 
with  regard  both  to  Europe  and  to  America,  and  possibly  to  the 
exertions  of  Great  Britain  herself. 

"Mr.  Fox  takes  this  opportunity  of  informing  your  Majesty, 
that  the  Irish  business  passed  yesterday  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons unanimously." 

MR.  GRENVILLE  TO  MR.  FOX. 

Paris,  3Iay  27,  1782. 
"Dear  Charles: — ■ 

"Lauzun  arrived  here  on  the  25th,  with  your  gazette  and  dis- 
patches, and  I  have  this  moment  received  your  post  letter  of 
the  18th.  General  Murray  goes  to  England  to-morrow,  and  to 
him  I  give  this  letter,  as  I  shall  not  dispatch  a  messenger  till  I 
receive  a  distinct  answer  from  Monsieur  de  Vergennes.     I  went 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  2T9 

to  him  yesterday,  and,  having  given  him  the  copy  of  the  full  power 
to  read,  he  told  me  there  was  a  difficulty  au  premier  pas,  for  that 
the  full  power  enabled  me  only  to  confer  with  the  French  Minis- 
ters; whereas  H.  M.  C.  M.  had  already  declared  he  could  only 
treat  in  conjunction  with  his  allies,  that  he  had  yet  had  no  answer 
from  Spain,  and  Holland,  &c.  I  say  &c.,  because  he  told  me  he 
could  not  give  me  a  formal  answer  till  the  29th,  so  that  I  wait 
for  that  before  I  send  a  messenger,  and  only  take  this  opportunity 
of  telling  you  what  the  Secretary  of  State  will  hear  in  a  more 
regular  form. 

"  Far  from  being  disappointed  at  your  not  extending  your  pro- 
positions, I  should  have  been  disappointed  if  you  had ;  nor  do  I 
at  all  wish  you  to  think,  because  I  expect  no  success  from  those 
propositions,  that  I  shall  desire  to  be  the  bearer  of  others  more 
promising  because  more  dishonorable.  I  must  repeat  in  every 
letter,  that  I  believe  the  demands  of  France  and  Spain  will  be 
dishonorable  and  ruinous  to  us ;  and,  in  truth,  if  the  ruin  is  to  be 
equal,  there  is  more  manly  ruin  in  resisting  than  in  acquiescing  : 
it  is  to  show  you  that  this  opinion  has  hitherto  been  uniform,  and 
from  a  sort  of  scruple  I  have  of  suppressing  any  letter  I  had 
meant  to  send,  that  I  inclose  with  this  one  written  to  you  on  the 
21st,  which  I  could  not  then  send.  I  shall  lose  no  opportunity 
with  Franklin  that  I  can  lay  hold  of;  one  must  watch  one's  time 
with  him,  for  he  is  not  a  man  that  can  be  pressed.  Adieu.  I 
will  write  again  by  the  messenger  in  two  days.  I  inclose  to  you 
a  letter  from  Monsieur  de  Castries,  and  a  French  account  of  the 
battle  in  the  West  Indies,  which  was  once  half  printed  for  a  ga- 
zette, but  afterwards  countermanded. 

"You  will  see,  in  my  letter  of  the  21st,  an  indisposition  to  the 
character  you  have  sent  me — that  character  will  not  assist  you, 
and  will  embarrass  me ;  for  I  can  do  as  much  of  the  business  you 
want,  without  the  dignity  and  salary  ^f  the  silver  box^  as  with  it 
— therefore  will  only  add  that  if  I  give  way  to  you,  in  taking  the 
full  powers,  that  is  to  say,  the  second  edition,  I  shall  expect  you 
to  gratify  my  vanity  in  letting  me  hold  only  the  useful  part  of  it, 
and  not  expecting  me  to  take  the  emoluments,  whatever  they  may 


280  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^ETAT.  33. 

be ;  tbis,  too,  you  will  find  to  be  no  sacrifice,  for  I  am,  and  mean 
to  stay,  in  a  hotel  y ami ,  without  one  farthing's  additional  expense 
for  all  my  additional  dignities.  Adieu,  my  dear  Charles,  ever 
very  afiectionately  yours,  and  very  happy  in  learning  that  people 
think  more  and  more  of  you  as  they  ought. 

''T.  G." 


MR.  GRENYILLE  TO  MR.  FOX. 

"Paris,  i/a?/ 30,  1782. 
^^  Dear  Charles  : — 

"  Having  sent  you  two  letters  by  General  Murray,  who  left 
Paris  the  day  before  yesterday,  I  have  very  little  to  add  in  this, 
besides  the  impatience  I  feel  to  send  away  the  courier,  who  has 
been  delayed  these  four  days  for  Monsieur  de  Yergennes's  answer. 
You  will  see,  by  the  dispatch  I  send  you,  that  we  are  not  more 
advanced  than  we  were )  the  news  of  our  victory  has  made  them 
something  more  peevish  without  more  inclining  them  to  peace, 
which  everybody  here  thinks  more  distant  than  ever.  I  do  not 
cease  to  try  what  can  be  done  with  Franklin,  and  though  he 
never  gives  any  hope  of  a  separate  treaty  which  shall  detach  them 
from  France,  he  certainly  expresses  every  intention  and  wish  of 
making  a  solid  union.  He  promised  me  to  write  down  some 
heads  upon  this  subject,  which  he  will  talk  over  with  me  in  two 
or  three  days,  and  seemed  quite  satisfied  with  me  when  I  assured 
him,  upon  seeing  why  he  hesitated,  that  if  he  wished  it  I  would 
consider  what  was  to  pass  as  mere  conversation,  and  not  as  a  direct 
negotiation ;  so  that  when  I  give  you  an  account  of  it  you  will,  I 
am  sure,  not  forget  to  carry  that  idea  along  with  you.  He  pro- 
fesses always  a  great  opinion  of  you,  and  a  great  confidence  that 
something  essential  may  now  be  done  between  the  two  countries ; 
but  you  i^ust  not  be  sanguine  in  expecting  that  America  will  be 
detached  from  France  in  this  negotiation,  as  Franklin  seems  too 
jealous  of  the  faith  of  his  first  treaty  to  hear  of  anything  that 
looks  like  abandoning  it ;  but  I  will  not  now  say  more,  as  my 
next  letter  will  probably  be  confined  to  that  subject. 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  281 

'^  Your  instructions  desire  me  to  be  attentive  to  the  Dutch  min- 
ister, but  Mr.  Berkenrode  is  no  Solomon,  and  if  he  was  I  should 
not  profit  bj  it,  for,  finding,  when  I  came  here,  that  it  was  wished 
at  Versailles  that  I  should  not  make  a  very  public  appearance, 
I  have  hardly  gone  into  any  company,  nor  seen  people  but  those 
who  I  thought  could  be  useful,  and  have  as  yet  owned  my 
employment  to  nobody.  I  say  nothing  about  myself,  in  addition 
to  what  you  have  heard  from  me  in  my  letters  by  Murray,  but 
as  I  do  not  see  any  great  probability  of  this  becoming  a  very 
long  negotiation  here,  I  do  not  mean  to  trouble  you  for  the  assist- 
ance of  a  secretary ;  the  only  use  I  see  likely  to  result  from  my 
journey,  is  what  may  be  got  from  learning  Franklin's  ideas,  and 
to  that  I  now  chiefly  direct  my  attention ;  because,  even  if  they 
are  not  practicable  at  this  moment,  they  may  come  to  be  so. 

"  Adieu.     Ever  affectionately  yours, 

"T.  G. 

'^P.  S. — I  believe  Mons.  de  Castries  has  as  yet  no  other  account 
of  the  engagement  but  that  which  I  sent  you  by  Murray;  the 
frigate  in  which  some  of  the  officers  sailed  from  Brest  met  with  a 
storm,  and  put  back  to  Nantes.  Jay  will  be  here  in  a  day  or  two 
from  Madrid. 

"  Pray  thank  Sheridan  for  his  letter ;  I  will  write  to  him  by 
the  first  opportunity.  You  will  recollect  that,  till  I  hear  from  you 
about  the  full  power,  I  can  have  no  conversation  with  Mons.  de 
Yergennes.  As  I  am  sealing  my  letter,  I  learn  that  an  officer  is 
just  come  with  the  detail  of  the  action  to  Mons.  de  Castries.^' 

[In  the  mean  while,  the  following  important  resolution  had 
been  adopted  by  the  Cabinet,  and  communicated  to  Mr.  Gren- 
ville.] 

"Clakges  Street,  3fai/  23,  1782. 

"  Present — Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  Privy  Seal,  Lord  Eocking- 
ham.  Lord  Shelburne,  Lord  John  Cavendish,  Lord  Kcppel,  Lord 
Ashburton,  General  Conway,  Mr.  Fox. 

94* 


282  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

^'It  is  humbly  recommended  to  your  Majesty  to  direct  Mr.  Fox 
to  instruct  Mr.  G-renville  to  propose  the  independency  of  America 
in  the  first  instance,  instead  of  making  it  a  condition  of  a  general 
treaty. '^ 

[On  the  30th,  Mr.  Oswald  returned  to  Paris,  with  a  memoran- 
dum from  Lord  Shelburne,  to  be  shown  to  Dr.  Franklin,  en- 
gaging, among  other  things,  that  '^any  character  should  be  given 
to  Mr.  Oswald  which  Dr.  Franklin  thought  conducive  to  a  final 
settlement  of  things  between  Great  Britain  and  America."  To 
this  suggestion  Dr.  Franklin  readily  acceded.  Mr.  Oswald,  he 
says,  "  appears  so  good  and  so  reasonable  a  man,  that,  though  I 
have  no  objection  to  Mr.  G-renville,  I  should  be  loath  to  lose  Mr. 
Oswald.  He  seems  to  have  nothing  at  heart  but  the  good  of 
mankind,  and  putting  a  stop  to  mischief;  the  other,  a  young 
statesman,  may  be  supposed  to  have  naturally  a  little  ambition 
of  recommending  himself  as  an  able  negotiator."^  In  the  follow- 
ing letters  of  Mr.  Grenville  and  Mr.  Fox,  will  be  seen  the  con- 
sequences of  this  message,  and  of  the  discovery  of  the  previous 
communications  between  Franklin  and  Lord  Shelburne.] 

"Paris,  June  4,  1782. 
"  Sir  :— 

'^  Mr.  Oswald  arrived  here  on  the  30th,  the  day  after  Ogg  was 
gone,  and  I  received  by  him  the  honor  of  your  letter  of  the 
26th. 

"  You  will  have  seen,  by  my  last  of  the  30th,  that  Mens. 
de  Vergennes'  objections  to  the  full  power  are  such  as,  while 
they  subsist,  preclude  any  further  discussion  of  business.  I 
have,  therefore,  with  regard  to  him,  nothing  new  to  inform  you 
of.  It  cannot,  however,  Sir,  have  escaped  your  notice,  that 
the  offer  of  independence  in  the  first  instance,  instead  of  making 
it  a  conditional  article  of  general  treaty,  necessarily  changes  a 
part  of  the  propositions  I  had  in  charge  to  make  to  Mons.  de  Ver- 
gennes.    I  take  it  for  granted,  therefore,  that  in  any  future  con- 

1  Franldiu's  Works,  by  Sparks,  vol.  ix.  pp.  314-317. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  283 

versation  with  the  French  Minister^  it  was  your  iutention  that  I 
should  omit  the  mention  of  independence,  and  confine  myself 
simply  to  the  peace  of  1763  as  the  basis  of  a  treaty.  But,  as  I 
should  be  very  sorry  to  misinterpret  this  or  any  part  of  your  in- 
structions, I  flatter  myself  that  you  will  have  the  goodness  to 
direct  me  upon  this  subject — the  doubt  which  has  arisen  from 
Mons.  de  Vergennes  and  Mr.  Franklin,  about  the  full  power, 
gives  sufficient  time  for  this  explanation  without  any  additional 
delay. 

^'  It  is,  I  see,  in  the  sense  I  mention,  that  Mr.  Franklin  wishes 
it,  for  when  I  spoke  to  him  of  the  offer  your  last  letter  would  au- 
thorize, he  expressed  very  great  satisfaction  at  its  being  kept  out 
of  the  treaty  with  France,  adding  that  the  more  good  England 
did  to  America,  the  more  America  would  assist  this  business ;  to 
repeat,  therefore,  the  same  offer  as  a  proposition  to  France,  would 
defeat  its  purpose  with  America. 

"  I  hope  soon  to  receive  your  orders  upon  this,  as  upon  the 
subject  of  my  last  letter,  in  which  I  ought  to  have  added  that 
Mr.  Franklin  seemed  not  a  little  jealous  of  there  being  no  powers 
yet  sent  to  treat  with  America. 

^^  I  am,  &c. 

"  THOMAS  GRENVILLE." 

MR.  GRENVILLE  TO  MR.  FOX. 

"Paris,  June  4,  1782. 
''  Dear  Charles  : — 

^'  The  public  letter  which  I  send  to  you  by  Lauzun  is,  as  you 
will  see,  of  no  other  use  than  that  of  accounting  for  his  journey, 
and  enabling  him  to  carry  to  you  this  private  one,  of  which  I  had 
once  almost  determined  to  be  myself  the  bearer.  An  apprehen- 
sion, however,  that  so  sudden  an  arrival  might  be  embarrassing  to 
you  has  decided  me  not  to  take  that  step  till  I  had  explained  to 
you  my  reasons  for  wishing  to  do  so,  though  I  should  not  care  to 
write  them  except  in  the  full  confidence  that  they  will  be  seen  by 
no  persons  whatever  but  yourself.  Recollect  always  that  tbis 
letter  is  written  in  that  confidence,  and  I  am  sure  I  never  can  re- 


284  CORRESPONDENCE    OE  [iETAT.  33. 

pent  of  having  sent  it.  You  will  easily  see,  from  the  tenor  of  the 
correspondence  we  have  hitherto  had,  that  what  little  use  I  could 
be  of  to  you  here,  appeared  to  me  to  be  in  the  communication 
that  I  had  with  Franklin.  I  considered  the  rest  of  the  negotiation 
as  dependent  upon  that,  and  the  only  possible  immediate  advan- 
tages which  were  to  be  expected  seemed  to  me  to  rest  in  the  jeal- 
ousy which  the  French  Court  would  entertain  of  not  being  tho- 
roughly supported  in  everything  by  America.  The  degree  of 
confidence  which  Franklin  seemed  inclined  to  place  in  me,  and 
which  he  expressed  to  me,  more  than  once,  in  the  strongest  terms, 
very  much  favored  this  idea,  and  encouraged  me  in  wishing  to 
learn  from  him  what  might  be,  in  future,  ground  for  a  partial 
connection  between  England  and  America ;  I  say  in  future,  be- 
cause I  have  never  hitherto  much  believed  in  any  treaty  of  the 
year  1782,  and  my  expectation,  even  from  the  strongest  of 
Franklin's  expressions,  was  not  of  an  immediate  turn  in  our  favor, 
or  any  positive  advantage  from  the  Commissioners  in  Europe,  till 
the  people  of  America  should  cry  out  to  them,  from  seeing  that 
England  was  meeting  their  wishes.  It  was  in  this  light,  too,  that  I 
saw  room  to  hope  for  some  good  effects  from  a  voluntary  offer  of 
unconditional  independence  to  America ;  a  chance  which  looked 
the  more  tempting,  as  I  own  I  considered  the  sacrifice  as  but  a 
small  one,  and  such  as,  had  I  been  an  American,  I  had  thought 
myself  little  obliged  to  Great  Britain  in  this  moment  for  grant- 
ing, except  from  an  idea  that,  if  it  was  an  article  of  treaty,  it 
would  have  been  as  much  given  by  France  as  by  England. 

'^  I  repeat  this  only  to  remind  you  that,  from  these  considera- 
tions, the  whole  of  my  attention  has  been  given  to  Franklin,  and 
that  I  should  have  considered  myself  as  losing  my  time  here,  if 
it  had  not  been  directed  to  that  subject.  I  believe  I  told  you  in 
my  last  that  I  had  very  sanguine  expectations  of  Franklin's  being 
inclined  to  speak  out,  when  I  should  see  him  next;  indeed,  he  ex- 
pressly told  me  that  he  would  think  over  all  the  points  likely  to 
establish  a  solid  reconciliation  between  England  and  America, 
and  that  he  would  write  his  mind  upon  them,  in  order  that  we 
might  examine  them  together  more  in  order,  confiding,  as  he  said, 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  285 

in  me,  that  I  would  not  state  them  as  propositions  from  him,  but 
as  being  my  own  ideas  of  what  would  be  useful  to  both  countries. 
(I  interrupt  myself  here,  to  remind  you  of  the  obligation  I 
must  put  you  under  not  to  mention  this).  For  this  very  inte- 
resting communication,  which  I  had  long  labored  to  get,  he  fixed 
the  fourth  day,  which  was  last  Saturday ;  but  on  Friday  morning 
Mr.  Oswald  came,  and  having  given  me  your  letters,  he  went  im- 
mediately to  Franklin,  to  carry  some  to  him.  I  kept  my  appoint- 
ment at  Passy  the  next  morning,  and  in  order  to  give  Franklin 
the  greatest  confidence,  at  the  same  time,  too,  not  knowing  how 
much  Mr.  Oswald  might  have  told  him,  I  began  with  saying,  that 
though  under  the  difficulty  which  M.  de  Yergennes  and  he  him- 
self had  made  to  my  full  power,  it  was  not  the  moment,  as  a  poli- 
tician perhaps,  to  make  further  explanations  till  that  difiiculty 
should  be  relieved,  yet  to  show  him  the  confidence  I  put  in  him, 
I  would  begin  by  telling  him  that  I  was  authorized  to  offer  the 
independence  in  the  first  instance,  instead  of  making  it  an  article 
of  general  treaty.  He  expressed  great  satisfaction  at  this,  espe- 
cially he  said,  because,  by  having  done  otherwise,  we  should  have 
seemed  to  have  considered  America  as  in  the  same  des;ree  of 
connection  with  France  which  she  had  been  under  with  us, 
whereas  America  wished  to  be  considered  as  a  power  free  and  clear 
to  all  the  world ;  but  when  I  came  to  lead  the  discourse  to  the  sub- 
ject which  he  had  promised  four  days  before,  I  was  a  good  deal  mor- 
tified to  find  him  put  it  ofi"  altogether  till  he  should  be  more  ready, 
and  notwithstanding  my  reminding  him  of  his  promise,  he  only 
answered  that  it  should  be  in  some  days.  What  passed  between 
Mr.  Oswald  and  me  will  explain  to  you  the  reason  of  this  disap- 
pointment. Mr.  Oswald  told  me  that  Lord  Shelburne  had  pro- 
posed to  him,  when  last  in  England,  to  take  a  commission  to 
treat  with  the  American  Ministers ;  that  upon  his  mentioning  it 
to  Franklin  now,  it  seemed  perfectly  agreeable  to  him,  and  even 
to  be  what  he  had  very  much  wished,  Mr.  Oswald  adding  that  he 
wished  only  to  assist  the  business,  and  had  no  other  view;  he 
mixed  with  this  a  few  regrets  that  there  should  be  any  difference 
between  the  two  offices,  and  when  I  asked  upon  what  subject,  he 


286  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

said  owing  to  the  Rockingham  party  being  too  ready  to  give  up 
everything.  You  will  observe  though — for  it  is  on  that  account 
that  I  give  you  this  narrative — that  this  intended  appointment 
has  effectually  stopped  Franklin's  mouth  to  me,  and  that  when 
he  is  told  that  Mr.  Oswald  is  to  be  the  Commissioner  to  treat 
with  him,  it  is  but  natural  that  he  should  reserve  his  confidence 
for  the  quarter  so  pointed  out  to  him ;  nor  does  this  secret  seem 
only  known  to  Franklin,  as  Lafayette  said  laughingly  yesterday, 
that  he  had  just  left  Lord  Shelhurne's  ambassador  at  Pass}/. 
Indeed,  this  is  not  the  first  moment  of  a  separate  negotiation,  for 
Mr.  Oswald,  suspecting  by  something  that  I  dropped  that  Frank- 
lin had  talked  to  me  about  Canada  (though,  by  the  by,  he  never 
had),  told  me  this  circumstance,  as  follows  :  When  he  went  to 
England  the  last  time  but  one,  he  carried  with  him  a  paper  in- 
trusted to  him  by  Franklin  under  condition  that  it  should  be 
shown  only  to  Lord  Shelburne  and  returned  into  his  own  hands 
at  Passy.  This  paper,  under  the  title  of  ^  Notes  of  a  Conversa- 
tion,' contained  an  idea  of  Canada  being  spontaneously  ceded  by 
England  to  the  thirteen  provinces,  in  order  that  Congress  might 
sell  the  unappropriated  lands  and  make  a  fund  thereby,  in  order 
to  compensate  the  damages  done  by  the  English  army,  and  even 
those  too  sustained  by  the  Koyalists;  this  paper,  given  with  many 
precautions  for  fear  of  its  being  known  to  the  French  Court,  to 
whom  it  was  supposed  not  to  be  agreeable,  Mr.  Oswald  showed 
to  Lord  Shelburne,  who,  after  keeping  it  a  day  as  Mr.  Oswald 
supposes,  to  show  to  the  King,  returned  it  to  him,  and  it  was  by 
him  brought  back  to  Franklin.  I  say  nothing  to  the  proposition 
itself,  to  the  impolicy  of  bringing  a  strange  neighborhood  to  the 
Newfoundland  fishery,  or  to  the  little  reason  that  England  would 
naturally  see,  in  having  lost  thirteen  provinces,  to  give  away  a 
fourteenth;  but  I  mention  it  to  show  you  an  early  trace  of  sepa- 
rate negotiation  which  perhaps  you  did  not  before  know. 

^^  Under  these  circumstances,  I  felt  very  much  tempted  to  go 

y^       over,  and  explain  them  to  you  viva  voce  rather  than  by  letter,  and 

I  must  say,  with  the  farther  intention  of  suggesting  to  you  the 

only  idea  that  seems  likely  to  answer  your  purpose,  and  it  is  this : 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  287 

the  Spanish  Ambassador  will,  in  a  day  or  two,  have  the  powers 
from  his  Court;  the  Americans  are  here,  so  are  the  French;  why 
should  you  not,  then,  consider  this  as  a  Congress  in  full  form,  and 
send  here  a  person  of  rank,  such  as  Lord  Fitzwilliam  (if  he  would 
come),  so  as  to  have  the  whole  negotiation  in  the  hands  of  one 
person  ?  You  would  by  that  means  recover  within  your  compass 
the  essential  part,  which  is  now  out  of  it ;  nor  do  I  see  how  Lord 
Shelburne  could  object  to  such  an  appointment,  which  would,  in 
every  respect,  much  facilitate  the  business.  Let  me  press  this  a 
little  strongly  to  you,  for  another  reason.  You  may  depend  upon 
it,  people  here  have  already  got  an  idea  of  a  difference  between 
the  two  offices ;  and  consider  how  much  that  idea  will  be  assisted 
by  the  embarrassments  arising  from  two  people  negotiating  to  the 
same  purpose,  but  under  different  and  differing  authorities,  conceal- 
ing and  disguising  from  each  other  what,  with  the  best  intentions, 
they  could  hardly  make  known,  and  common  enough  to  each.  I 
am  almost  afraid  of  pressing  this  as  strongly  as  I  should,  for 
fear  you  should  think  me  writing  peevishly,  but  if  I  did  not  state 
the  thing  to  you  in  the  situation  in  which  I  see  it,  I  should  think 
I  was  betraying  your  interests,  instead  of  giving  attention  to  them. 
I  must  entreat  you  very  earnestly  to  consider  this,  to  see  the  im- 
possibility of  my  assisting  you  under  this  contrariety ;  to  see  how 
much  the  business  itself  will  suffer,  if  carried  on  with  the  jealousy 
of  these  clashing  interests ;  and  to  see  whether  it  may  not  all  be 
prevented  by  some  single  appointment  in  high  rank,  as  that  I  men- 
tioned. Au  resie,  I  cannot  but  say  that  I  feel  much  easier,  with 
the  hope  of  making  over  what  remains  of  this  business ;  I  begin 
to  feel  it  weighty,  and  you  know  how  much  I  dislike  the  puhlicity 
you  packed  off  to  me  in  that  confounded  silver  box.  I  could  not 
bring  myself  to  say  anything  civil  about  it  in  my  last  letter,  and 
you  ought  to  give  me  credit  for  great  self-denial  in  not  taking 
this  opportunity  of  telling  you  my  own  story  at  the  Secretary's 
office,  as  nothing  but  the  embarrassment  it  might  give  you  upon 
the  sudden,  prevented  me.  Once  more  I  tell  you,  I  cannot  fight 
a  daily  battle  with  JMr.  Oswald  and  his  secretary;  it  would  be  nei- 


288  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

ther  for  the  advantage  of  the  business,  for  your  interest  or  your 
credit,  or  mine,  and  even  if  it  was,  I  could  not  do  it. 

^'-  Concluding,  then,  the  American  business  as  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, which  personally  I  cannot  be  sorry  for,  you  surely  have  but 
one  of  two  things  to  do;  either  to  adopt  the  proposition  of  a  new 
dignified  Peer's  appointment,  which,  being  single,  may  bring  back 
the  business  to  you  by  comprehending  it  all  in  one ;  or  Lord  Shel- 
burne  must  have  his  minister  here,  and  Mr.  Fox  his,  by  doing 
which  Mr.  Fox  will  be  pretty  near  as  much  out  of  the  secret — at 
least  of  what  is  most  essential — as  if  he  had  nobody  here,  and  the 
only  real  gainers  by  it  will  be  the  other  Ministers,  who  cannot  fail 
to  profit  of  such  a  jumble;  besides  which,  upon  this  latter  part  of 
the  subject,  I  must  very  seriously  entreat  you  with  regard  to  my- 
self, not  to  ask  me  to  keep  a  situation  here,  in  no  circumstances 
pleasant,  and  in  none  less  so  than  those  I  have  described.  The 
grievance  is  a  very  essential  one  ;  the  remedy  is  Lord  Fitzwilliam. 
Adieu.  I  recommend  to  Lauzun  to  make  all  the  haste  he  can,  as 
I  shall  not  stir  a  step  till  you  answer  this  letter,  and  my  step  then 
will,  I  hope,  be  towards  you. 

"  Sheridan's  letter  of  suspicion  was  written,  as  you  see,  in  the 
spirit  of  prophecy.  I  owe  him  an  answer,  which  by  word  of  mouth, 
or  word  of  letter,  he  shall  have  very  soon. 

^'The  news  of  the  day  is  that  the  Cadiz  fleet,  twenty-six  sail 
of  the  line  and  five  French,  are  sailed  for  Brest;  but  I  rather 
imagine  they  have  no  authentic  account  of  it  yet. 

"  Adieu.     Let  Lord  Fitzwilliam  answer  my  letter.'^ 

MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  GRENVILLE. 

"St.  James's,  June  10,  1782. 
^^  Dear  Grenville  : — 

"  I  received  late  the  night  before  last  your  interesting  letter  of 

the  4th,  and  you  may  easily  conceive  am  not  a  little  embarrassed 

by  its  contents.     In  the  first  place,  it  was  not  possible  to  comply 

with  your  injunction  of  perfect  secrecy  in  a  case  where  steps  of 

such  importance  are  necessary  to  be  taken,  and  therefore  I  have 

taken  upon  me  (for  which  I  must  trust  to  your  friendship  to  ex- 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  289 

cuse  me)  to  show  your  letter  to  Lord  Rockingham,  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  and  Lord  John,  who  are  all  as  full  of  indignation  at 
its  contents  as  one  might  reasonably  expect  honest  men  to  be. 
We  are  now  perfectly  resolved  to  come  to  an  explanation  upon  the 
business,  if  it  is  possible  so  to  do  without  betraying  any  confidence 
reposed  in  me  by  you,  or  in  you  by  others.  >  The  two  principal 
points  which  occur  are  the  paper  relative  to  Canada,  of  which  I 
had  never  heard  till  I  received  your  letter,  and  the  intended  in- 
vestment of  Mr.  Oswald  with  full  powers,  which  was  certainly 
meant  for  the  purpose  of  diverting  Franklin's  confidence  from 
you  into  another  channel.  With  these  two  points  we  wish  to 
charge  Shelburne  directly ;  but  pressing  as  the  thing  is,  and  in- 
teresting as  it  is  both  to  our  situations  and  to  the  aifairs  of  the 
public,  which  I  fear  are  irretrievably  injured  by  this  intrigue,  and 
which  must  be  ruined  if  it  is  suffered  to  go  on,  we  are  resolved 
not  to  stir  a  step  till  we  hear  again  from  you,  and  know  precisely 
how  far  we  are  at  liberty  to  make  use  of  what  you  have  discovered. 
If  this  matter  should  produce  a  rupture,  and  consequently  become 
more  or  less  the  subject  of  public  discussion,  I  am  sensible  the 
Canada  paper  cannot  be  mentioned  by  name;  but  might  it  not 
be  said  that  we  had  discovered  that  Shelburne  had  withheld  from 
our  knowledge  matters  of  importance  to  the  negotiation  ?  And, 
with  respect  to  the  other  point,  might  it  not  be  said,  without  be- 
traying anybody,  that  while  the  King  had  one  avowed  and  author- 
ized Minister  at  Paris,  measures  were  taken  for  lessening  his  credit, 
and  for  obstructing  his  inquiries,  by  announcing  a  new  intended 
commission,  of  which  the  Cabinet  here  had  never  been  ai^prised  ? 
Do,  pray,  my  dear  Grenville,  consider  the  incredible  importance 
of  this  business  in  every  view,  and  write  me  word  precisely  how 
far  you  can  authorize  us  to  make  use  of  your  intelligence.  It  is 
more  than  possible  that,  before  this  reaches  you,  many  other  cir- 
cumstances may  have  occurred  which  may  afford  further  proofs  of 
this  duplicity  of  conduct,  and  if  they  have,  I  am  sure  they  will 
not  have  escaped  your  observation.  If  this  should  be  the  case, 
you  will  see  the  necessity  of  acquainting  me  with  them  as  soon  as 
possible.  You  sec  what  is  our  object,  and  you  can  easily  judge 
VOL.  I. — 25 


290  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

what  sort  of  evidence  will  be  most  useful  to  us.  When  the  object 
is  attained,  that  is,  when  the  duplicity  is  proved,  to  what  conse- 
quences we  ought  to  drive,  whether  to  an  absolute  rupture,  or 
merely  to  the  recall  of  Oswald  and  the  simplification  of  this  nego- 
tiation, is  a  point  that  may  be  afterwards  considered.  I  own  I 
incline  to  the  more  decisive  measure,  and  so,  I  think,  do  those 
with  whom  I  must  act  in  concert.  I  am  very  happy,  indeed,  that 
you  did  not  come  yourself;  the  mischiefs  that  would  have  hap- 
pened from  it  to  our  affairs  are  incredible,  and  I  must  beg  of  you, 
nay,  entreat  and  conjure  you  not  to  think  of  taking  any  precipi- 
tate step  of  this  nature.  As  to  the  idea  of  replacing  you  with 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  not  only  it  would  be  very  objectionable  on  ac- 
count of  the  mistaken  notion  it  would  convey  of  things  being 
much  riper  than  they  are,  but  it  would,  as  I  conceive,  be  no  re- 
medy to  jhe  evil.  Whether  the  King's  Minister  at  Paris  be  an 
Ambassador  Extraordinary  or  a  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  can 
make  no  difference  as  to  the  question.  The  clandestine  manner 
of  carrying  on  a  separate  negotiation,  which  we  complain  of,  would 
be  equally  practicable  and  equally  blamable  if  Lord  Fitzwilliam 
was  Ambassador,  as  it  is  now  that  BIr.  Grenville  is  Plenipotentiary. 
I  must  therefore  again  entreat  you,  as  a  matter  of  personal  kind- 
ness to  me,  to  remain  a  little  longer  at  Paris ;  if  you  were  to  leave 
it,  all  sorts  of  suspicion  would  be  raised.  It  is  of  infinite  conse- 
quence that  we  should  have  it  to  say,  that  we  have  done  all  in  our 
power  to  make  peace,  not  only  with  regard  to  what  may  be  ex- 
pected from  America,  but  from  Europe.  The  King  of  Prussia  is 
certainly  inclined  to  be  our  friend,  but  he  urges  and  presses  to 
make  peace  if  possible;  if  we  could  once  bring  the  treaty  to  such 
a  point  as  the  stating  the  demands  on  each  side  to  him,  and  we 
could  have  his  approbation  for  breaking  it  off,  I  think  it  not  im- 
possible but  the  best  consequences  might  follow;  and  with  regard 
to  North  America,  it  is  surely  clear  to  demonstration  that  it  is  of 
infinite  consequence  that  it  should  be  publicly  understood  who  is 
to  blame  if  the  war  continues.  I  do  hope,  therefore,  that  you 
will  at  all  events  stay  long  enough  to  make  your  propositions,  and 
to  call  upon  them  to  make  others  in  return.     I  know  your  situa- 


1782.]  CIIAELES   JAMES   FOX.  201 

tion  cannot  be  pleasant;  but  as  you  first  undertook  it  in  a  great 
measure  from  friendship  to  me,  so  let  me  hope  that  the  same  mo- 
tive will  induce  you  to  continue  in  it,  at  least  for  some  time.  What 
will  be  the  end  of  this,  God  knows ;  but  I  am  sure  you  will  agree 
with  me  that  we  cannot  suffer  a  system  to  go  on,  which  is  not 
only  dishonorable  to  us,  but  evidently  ruinous  to  the  affairs  of  the 
country.  In  this  instance,  the  mischief  done  by  intercepting,  as 
it  were,  the  very  useful  information  we  expected  through  you  from 
Franklin,  is,  I  fear,  in  a  great  degree  irremediable ;  but  it  is  our 
business,  and  indeed  our  duty,  to  prevent  such  things  for  the 
future.  Everything  in  Ireland  goes  on  well,  and  I  really  think 
there  is  good  reason  to  entertain  hopes  from  Russia  and  Prussia, 
if  your  negotiation  either  goes  on,  or  goes  off,  as  it  ought  to  do." 

MR.  GRENYILLE  TO  MR.  FOX. 

''Pakis,  JuneS,  1782. 

"  Dear  Charles  : — 

"  I  wrote  to  you  so  much  at  large  by  Lauzun,  and  felt  so  much 
persuaded  at  the  time  of  all  I  wrote,  that  I  hardly  think  you  can 
fail  of  seeing  the  subject  of  my  letter  such  as  I  represented  it. 
There  is  some  vanity  you  will  say  in  that  opinion  ;  but  I  have  it 
not  the  less  for  that,  and  depend  so  much  upon  your  agreeing  with 
me,  that  I  should  be  not  a  little  mortified  to  find  myself  mistaken. 

"  If  I  profit  now  of  the  opportunity  of  Mr.  Damer's  going  to 
England,  it  is  only  to  add  that  I  said  little  of  my  own  wishes  to 
return  in  my  last  letter,  because  I  thought  other  reasons  much 
more  important,  would  appear  to  you  fully  sufficient ;  those 
personal  reasons,  however,  which  I  own  have  their  weight 
with  me,  would,  I  am  sure,  on  that  account,  have  some  with 
you,  although  you  will  observe  that  in  my  public  letter  I  have 
not  signified  any  such  wish  as  that  contained  in  my  private 
one ',  if,  in  point  of  form,  you  think  I  should  do  so,  you  will  cer- 
tainly let  me  know  it,  as  I  have  omitted  it  till  I  hear  from  you, 
only  to  avoid  giving  you  any  unnecessary  embarrassment. 

^^  I  have  not  seen  Mons.  de  Yergennes  since  I  wrote  last,  but 


292  CORRESPONDENCE    OE  [^TAT.  33. 

I  find  tliat  he  is  inclined  to  speak  of  this  last  affair  as  a  proof  of 
the  insincerity  of  our  Court  in  sending  a  power  thej  knew  could 
not  be  admitted,  or  at  least  as  a  proof  of  their  wish  to  protract. 
This  last  idea,  by  the  by,  a  singular  one  to  come  from  Versailles, 
for  mark  the  course  of  the  delay  :  I  go  to  him  almost  the  moment 
the  courier  comes,  and  I  express  every  wish  to  expedite  the 
business ;  he  keeps  me  four  days  without  an  answer,  and  when  ho 
gives  it  me,  makes  me  send  it  by  Ostend,  though  I  particularly 
beg  the  passport  by  Calais  in  order  to  save  time.  The  French 
Gazette  gives  no  account  of  the  West  India  engagement,  but 
merely  a  list  of  officers  killed  and  wounded  in  M.  de  Yaudreuil's 
division,  now  arrived  at  Cape  Tiburon  ;  it  ends  with  his  Christian 
Majesty's  orders  for  immediately  building  twelve  ships  from  110  to 
64  guns — ^  let  there  be  ships,  and  there  were  ships,'  would  make 
the  order  more  formidable,  but  as  it  is,  they  must,  I  fancy,  go 
through  the  dock-yards,  and  be  built  as  well  as  created  before  they 
will  do  any  mischief.  The  Grand  Duke  is  still  here,  and  there  is 
no  end  of  the  fetes  they  give  him  j  how  lucky  it  is  that  he  has  no 
thoughts  of  going  to  England;  his  reception  there  would  not  have 
helped  him  to  a  brilliant  comparison  in  our  favor ;  we  should  have 
treated  him,  as  we  say,  like  a  friend,  that  is  to  say,  left  him  to 
shift  for  himself;  he  stays  here  till  the  17th. 

^'  Your  letter  of  the  31st,  by  the  post,  is  just  come  to  me;  and 
I  am  glad  to  find  you  do  not  disapprove  of  the  letters  to  Mens,  de 
Yergennes.  I  have  seen  Oswald  to-day,  who  again  dwelt  very 
much  upon  its  being  Franklin's  wish  that  he,  Oswald,  should  have 
a  commission  to  traat  with  the  Americans.  I  haunt  you  upon 
this  subject,  in  order  to  confirm  you  in  my  ideas  about  it,  and 
hasten  my  own  return,  which  I  earnestly  hope  you  will  not  delay. 
Major  Ross  is  come;  Franklin  has  undertaken  to  give  him  Lord 
Cornwallis's  discharge,  and  he  will  return  the  day  after  to-morrow. 
Desire  Sheridan  to  show  you  my  letter  to  him. 

"  Adieu.     Ever  very  affectionately  yours, 

"T.  GRENVILLE." 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  293 

MR.  GRENVILLE  TO  MR.  SHERIDAN. 

''June  8,  1782. 
^^  Dear  Sheridan  : — 

"After  all  the  doubts  I  had  expressed  of  ever  hearing  from 
yoUj  it  was  not  very  natural  that  you  should  find  in  me  the 
same  idleness  which  I  reproached  you  with  by  anticipation ;  nor 
can  I  myself  account  for  it  except  that  my  surprise  was  so  great 
as  to  require  some  time  to  persuade  myself  that  I  had  actually  and 
hondfide  received  two  letters  from  you.  I  am,  however,  at  length 
convinced  of  it,  for  certainly  your  hand  is  not  easily  counter- 
feited. 

"  My  last  letter  to  Charles  very  much  justifies  the  doubts  which 
both  he  and  you  entertained;  the  subject  of  it  was  such  as  carried 
a  reason  in  every  line,  for  my  pressing  him  very  earnestly  in  the 
first  place  to  consider  how  little  useful  I  can  be  to  him  after  the 
check  put  to  Franklin's  confidence,  how  ruinous  it  would  be  to  all 
business  here  that  they  should  be  able  to  trace  at  Paris  the  inte- 
rior politics  of  our  Ministers,  and  how  many  speculations  arise 
upon  that  subject,  here  even  from  this  first  instance,  which  must, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  be  everyday  confirmed  by  that  appearance 
of  mutual  distrust  which  I  foresee  no  attention  will  altogether  con- 
ceal. You  will  certainly  see  that  none  of  that  serious  modesty 
with  which  you  are  so  much  amused  makes  any  part  of  this  con- 
sideration with  me,  or  is  the  least  ground  with  me  for  insisting 
upon  the  disadvantage  which  it  will  be  of  to  Charles,  that  I  should 
remain  here.  The  evil  is,  that  things  are  at  this  moment  so  cir- 
cumstanced as  to  justify  the  American  Secretary  in  sending  a  per- 
son commissioned  to  treat  distinctly  about  the  preliminaries  of 
peace  with  the  American  agents,  and  that  distinct  commission 
excludes  altogether  the  interference  or  intimate  communication  of 
the  other  office  ;  but  this  can  no  longer  be  the  case  if  Charles  will 
adopt  the  idea  I  have  suggested  to  him  of  letting  me  come  home, 
which  I  very  much  wish  to  do,  and  sending  here,  as  to  a  general 
Congress,  some  person  of  high  rank,  such  as  the  Ainerican  Secro- 

25* 


294  CORKESPONDENCE   OF  [JSTAT.  33. 

tary  could  not  object  to,  with  full  and  complete  authority  to  take 
possession  of  the  whole  business,  and  so  bring  back  to  one  point 
all  the  parts  of  this  negotiation,  which  I  am  sure,  in  any  other 
shape,  will  be  of  no  use,  but  great  disservice.  The  person,  I 
think,  might  very  well  answer  this  purpose,  is  Lord  Fitzwilliam. 
He  is  certainly  equal  to  it,  in  every  point  of  view,  and  his  situation 
is  such,  as  that  it  would  be  indecent  in  Lord  Shelburne  either  to 
object  to  him  or  to  add  to  him ;  if,  however,  there  should  be  any 
difficulty  about  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  of  which  I  am  not  aware,  still,  I 
must  repeat  that  some  such  person  of  confidence,  and  of  such  high 
rank  as  to  send  him  here  an  unequivocal,  undivided  Ambassador, 
is  the  person  that  Charles  must  find,  and  without  whom  he  will 
lose  ground  in  the  management  of  this  business,  and  the  business 
itself  will  take  such  a  form  as  to  expose  our  own  weakness,  and 
give  our  enemies  an  advantage  in  this  negotiation  which  they  can- 
not fail  to  profit  by.  The  more  this  is  considered,  the  more 
strongly  I  am  persuaded  it  will  bo  seen  in  the  light  in  which  it 
presents  itself  to  me ;  and  these  arguments  are  in  themselves  so 
striking  and  important,  that  I  persuade  myself  Charles  cannot  but 
see  the  force  of  them,  and  trusting  to  that,  I  have  rested  much 
less  than  I  otherwise  should  upon  my  own  personal  wish  to  return. 
The  share  of  this  business  to  which  I  was  most  inclined,  was  to 
assist,  without  any  public  character,  the  previous  arrangements  of 
it ;  to  do  more  than  that  places  me  here  in  a  situation  not  agreea- 
ble to  me,  and  for  a  longer  time  than  I  had  any  idea  of  giving  to 
it.  The  silver  box  which  you  say  you  looked  at  with  envy,  I  no 
sooner  saw  than  I  heartily  wished  back  again  at  his  Majesty's 
silversmith's,  and  in  the  answer  I  wrote  to  Charles,  I  made  an 
early  protest  against  any  Ministerial  establishment;  nor  has  a  ten 
days'  possession  made  me  more  enamored  of  the  King's  sign- 
manual,  or  the  parchment  that  hangs  to  it.  If,  therefore  (which 
I  really  cannot  persuade  myself  of),  you  should  find  Charles 
wavering  about  the  fiublic^reasons  1  have  given  him,  be  so  good  as 
to  add  these  private  ones  j  the  sum  total  amounts  to  a  full  persua- 
sion that  I  can  do  him  no  service  here,  and  a  very  earnest  desire 
to  return  in  the  same  obscure  capacity  in  which  I  went,  and  that 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  295 

as  speedily  as  may  be.     Adieu.     I  am  come  to  the  end  of  my 
paper  before  I  was  aware  of  it. 

"  Ever  very  truly  and  sincerely  yours, 

"T.  G." 

MR.  GRENYILLE  TO  MR.  FOX. 

[private.] 

Paris,  June  16,  1782. 
"  Dear  Charles  : — 

^^I  received  your  letter  of  the  10th,  by  Ogg,  on  the  night  of  the 
14th,  and  would  have  sent  him  back  as  immediately  as  you  seemed 
to  wish,  but  having  no  other  messenger  to  carry  back  Mons.  de 
Vergennes's  answer,  I  was  obliged  to  keep  him  till  he  could  be  the 
bearer  of  that  likewise.  I  can  easily  conceive  the  embarrassment 
occasioned  to  you  by  my  letter,  and  have  so  much  confidence  in  the 
honor  of  the  persons  to  whom  you  communicated  it,  that  I  am  not 
under  the  smallest  uneasiness  on  that  account.  The  explanation, 
however,  that  you  wish  to  come  to,  certainly  has  its  difficulties, 
and  amongst  them  some  so  sacred  that,  unless  they  can  be  kept 
altogether  clear,  you  cannot  but  agree  with  me  in  thinking  that 
they  must  be  buried  at  least  in  silence,  though  not  in  oblivion.  In 
order,  therefore,  that  you  may  see  into  every  part  of  this  business, 
I  will,  as  you  desire,  state  in  the  most  explicit  manner  the  circum- 
stances of  it,  as  far  as  1  think  they  affect  any  confidence  reposed  in 
me.  In  the  first  place,  then,  you  will  have  observed  that  although 
Franklin  has  actually  made  me  no  confidence  (owing  as  I  believe 
without  doubt  to  the  reasons  I  stated),  yet  as  the  communication 
he  had  said  he  would  make  to  me  was  of  the  most  confidential 
nature,  and  in  full  trust  that  the  subjects  which  he  should  mention 
should  not  be  given  as  propositions  coming  from  him,  I  think  it 
would  be  a  breach  of  that  confidence  to  make  it  known,  even  that 
he  had  promised  to  hold  such  a  conversation  with  me ;  and  there- 
fore to  charge  Lord  Shelburne  with  having  diverted  from  me  that 
expected  communication,  would  be  to  proclaim  Franklin's  promise 
to  me,  which  promise,  though  it  has  not  been  followed  up,  I  can- 
not think  myself  at  liberty  to  quote.     The  delicacy  of  Franklin's 


296  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  33. 

situation  with  respect  to  the  French  court,  was,  as  he  said,  the 
ground  of  the  caution  which  he  observed;  and  which  nevertheless 
he  was  inclined  to  risk  in  my  trust;  he  would  certainly  have 
both  to  repent  and  to  complain,  if  anything  on  my  part  should 
lead  to  betray  even  the  confidential  disposition  he  had  entertained. 
These  reasons  you  will  I  am  sure  agree  with  me  in  considering  as 
decisive  against  any  mention  being  to  be  made  of  the  expectations  I 
had  formed  from  the  conversations  I  was  to  have  had  with  Franklin. 
The  Canada  paper  is  not  perhaps  quite  under  the  same  circum- 
stances; the  only  knowledge  I  have  of  it  is  from  Oswald,  and,  as 
I  before  told  you,  I  had  it  from  him  at  a  moment  when  I  fancy  he 
apprehended  that  I  had  heard  or  should  hear  of  it  from  Franklin, 
no  other  reason  can  account  for  his  not  mentioning  it  from  the 
end  of  April  till  the  31st  of  May;  he  told  it  me  under  no  express 
limitation  of  confidence :  the  words  in  which  he  introduced  it 
were,  ^  I  think  it  right  you  should  hnoio  f  and  I  am  perfectly  sure 
that  he  asked  from  me  no  engagement  of  secrecy,  nor  do  I  con- 
ceive myself  under  any  with  regard  to  him,  other  than  that  general 
secrecy  which  is  always  attached  to  business  of  a  confidential  nature, 
such  as  was  the  business  I  related  to  you.  I  recollect  asking  if 
he  had  showed  the  paper  to  you ;  he  said  no,  but  did  not  add  any 
injunction  to  me  not  to  do  so,  and  indeed  if  he  had,  I  should  have 
stated  to  him  the  impossibility  of  my  keeping  from  you  a  circum- 
stance of  that  importance,  or  of  my  becoming  by  my  silence  in 
it  a  separate  party  to  a  business  which  it  was  my  duty  fully  and 
entirely  to  lay  before  you  and  receive  from  you.  Nor,  indeed,  at 
this  moment  is  the  knowledge  of  it  confined  to  Lord  Shelburne, 
as  I  am  pretty  sure  Oswald  told  me  that  Lord  Ashburton  was  with 
Lord  Shelburne  when  he,  Oswald,  asked  if  he  might  give  any 
answer  to  Franklin  about  the  paper,  or  rather  observed  that  he 
supposed  he  could  not  then  have  any  answer  to  it.  Under  these 
circumstances,  the  difiiculty  with  regard  to  the  Canada  paper,  of 
which  I  have  no  copy,  lies  possibly  more  in  the  indelicacy,  and 
perhaps  bad  policy,  of  bringing  forward  Franklin  where  he  wished 
so  much  not  to  appear  than  in  quoting  it  from  me.  I  do  not  wish 
to  be  quoted  if  there  exist  the  least  doubt  whether  I  should;  but 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  297 

I  cannot  more  exactly  explain  to  you  the  whole  extent  of  that 
doubtj  than  by  showing  you  that  it  does  not  exist  in  any  specific 
obligation  on  my  part,  but  only  in  the  nature  of  what  was  told  to 
me;  the  subject  itself  carrying  with  it,  as  you  will  see,  many 
reasons  for  secrecy,  and  every  mark  of  it  in  the  manner  of  con- 
ducting it ;  but  as  to  positive  engagement  or  obligation  upon  this 
subject  I  have  none.  The  remaining  circumstance  of  the  inten- 
tion mentioned  to  Mr.  Oswald  by  Lord  Shelburne  of  giving  him 
a  commission  if  it  should  be  necessary,  stands  altogether  clear  of 
the  slightest  shade  of  difficulty  upon  the  point  of  confidence: 
indeed,  at  the  time  I  wrote  you  word  of  it  I  did  not  imagine  I 
was  informing  you  of  anything  new  or  unknown  to  you,  and  only 
so  far  meant  to  dwell  upon  it  as  to  regret  its  happening  precisely 
at  the  instant  when  it  was  most  important  it  should  not.  I  ap- 
prehended that  Lord  Shelburne  might  have  already  expressed  such 
an  intention  to  the  rest  of  the  King's  Ministers,  upon  the  ground 
of  the  American  share  of  this  business;  which  ground,  in  the 
present  stage  of  it,  I  thought  possibly  you  had  not  found  it  easy 
to  object  to.  In  this  idea  you  will  find  that  I  have  written,  and 
in  this  idea  it  was  that  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  appointment  occurred 
to  me,  not  to  prevent  a  clandestine  negotiation,  but  to  unite  a 
separated  one,  always  imagining  that  you  knew  of,  but  did  not 
resist,  the  intended  commission  to  Mr.  Oswald,  and  therefore 
hinting  the  expediency  of  superseding  it,  by  giving  to  another 
person  an  appointment  of  such  rank  and  magnitude  as  should 
include  a  power  which,  it  seems,  neither  for  the  public  interest, 
nor  yours,  and  your  friends'  interests,  to  leave  separate  and  dis- 
tinct. To  return,  however,  to  the  point  of  confidence :  upon  this 
last  subject,  there  is  none,  and  you  are  certainly  at  full  liberty  to 
proclaim  at  Charing  Cross,  that  Lord  Shelburne  told  Mr.  Oswald 
he  supposed  he  would  not  object  to  a  commission,  if  it  should  be 
necessary,  and  that,  since  his  last  return  to  Paris,  Mr.  Oswald  has 
told  me  he  found  it  very  much  Franklin's  wish  likewise.  If  I 
may  repeat,  therefore,  in  a  few  words,  what  I  have  tried  to  express 
to  you  in  a  good  many,  it  is,  that  as  to  Franklin's  first  intention 
of  a  private  and  confidential  communication  with  me,  I  hold  my- 


298  COREESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

self  so  engaged  in  secrecy  to  him,  that  I  think  it  would  be  a 
breach  of  confidence  in  me  to  have  that  intention  at  all  spoken 
of.  As  to  the  Canada  paper,  I  leave  it,  with  the  comment  I 
have  made  upon  it,  altogether  to  your  discretion ;  and  as  to  the 
intended  commission,  you  are  certainly  at  full  liberty  to  say  of  it 
what  you  please.  I  have  it  not  in  my  power  to  give  you  any 
additional  proofs  of  sinister  management  in  this  business.  I  sel- 
dom see  Oswald,  though  upon  good  terms  with  him,  and  have  seen 
Franklin,  since  Oswald's  coming,  but  once,  when  he  was  as  silent 
as  ever,  notwithstanding  my  reminding  him  of  his  promise,  so  that 
I  cannot  but  think  that  business  altogether  irretrievable;  but 
neither  do  I  know  what  you  will  gain  by  forcing  Oswald's  return ; 
indeed,  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  might  be  much  more  prudent  to 
save  appearances  by  leaving  him  here  till  you  shall  have  com- 
pleted your  purpose  of  receiving  the  propositions  you  wish,  or  the 
refusal  you  wish,  from  Versailles.  Perhaps,  politically  speaking, 
you  may  not  think  it  wise  to  make  the  conduct,  or  rather  miscon- 
duct, of  a  foreign  negotiation,  the  ground  of  a  domestic  rupture, 
which  may  betray  too  much  weakness  and  disunion;  but  this  is 
too  delicate  a  subject  for  me  to  say  anything  upon,  more  than  to 
assure  you  that,  whatever  is  your  determination  about  it,  you  will 
not  find  me  shrink  from  the  part  I  have  to  take  in  it.  And  one 
word  here  about  the  desire  I  have  expressed  to  return  to  England. 
It  is  impossible  not  to  say  that  I  feel  that  desire  in  the  strongest 
degree.  I  would  not  speak  peevishly  about  my  disappointment  in 
the  unlucky  check  I  have  met  with,  but  I  think  you  will  agree, 
that  the  real  service  it  might,  perhaps,  have  been  my  good  fortune 
to  have  been  assisting  in,  is  by  that  check  completely  annihilated, 
nor  can  any  step  now  taken  recover  or  retrieve  it ;  and  that  con- 
sideration weighs  pretty  heavily  in  a  situation  in  itself  not  agree- 
able to  me :  but  if  I  repeat  this  now,  it  is  to  keep  you  awake  to 
the  earnest  solicitations  I  make  of  returning  in  the  first  moment 
you  may  think  it  practicable;  till  then,  you  need  have  no  appre- 
hension of  seeing  me,  but  may  trust  that  no  personal  motives, 
however  strong,  can  weigh  with  me  against  the  important  reasons, 
as  well  as  the  desire  you  express,  for  my  continuing  something 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   POX.  299 

longer  at  Paris.  I  am  writiug  to  you  on  the  16th,  waiting  im- 
patiently for  M.  de  Yergennes's  answer,  which  he  gave  me  reason 
to  hope  I  shall  have  to-morrow." 

"June  21.  I  have  been  waiting  day  after  day,  and  have  not 
got  my  answer  till  a  few  hours  ago.  I  am  sorry  I  have  kept  you 
so  long,  but  you  see  it  was  impossible  to  avoid  it.  A  report  pre- 
vails that  Bougainville  is  arrived  at  St.  Domingo  with  two  ships, 
as  are  likewise  the  four  that  were  at  Curasao.  They  add  that 
Rodney  had  been  obliged  to  burn  three  of  his  captured  ships.  La 
Motte  Piquet  has  twice  had  orders  to  sail  from  Brest  with  his 
seven  ships,  and  has  as  often  been  countermanded.  They  expect 
Guichen  every  day  with  the  Cadiz  fleet  of  thirty-two  ships,  that 
sailed  the  4th.  Tell  Sheridan  to  be  more  cautious  in  what  he 
writes  by  the  post.  If  I  had  time  I  would  give  him  a  lecture, 
but  I  want  to  send  away  the  messenger.  Oswald  affects  to  con- 
sider me  as  fully  authorized  now,  but  I  believe  expects  different 
news  as  soon  as  the  Independence  Bill  has  passed.  Yet  I  cannot 
help  thinking  you  had  better  leave  him  where  he  is;  his  going 
away  will  mend  nothing.     Adieu. 

"  Ever  very  affectionately  yours, 

"THOMAS  GRENVILLE." 

MR.  GRENVILLE  TO  MR.  FOX. 

"Paris,  July  ^,  1782. 
"Dear  Charles: — 

"  You  apologize  for  writing  me  only  a  few  lines.  I  shall  write 
you  still  fewer,  and  make  no  apology  -,  for  after  what  has  passed, 
I  count  every  minute  that  the  messenger  is  getting  ready  to  return 
as  so  much  time  lost,  however  it  is  employed. 

"  You  are  sorry  you  have  drawn  me  into  a  scrape.  I  know  of 
none — at  least  none  that  an  honest  man  could  keep  out  of,  or 
need  be  either  sorry  or  ashamed  to  have  got  into.  Neither  do  I 
see  what  you  have  to  regret  in  any  part  of  this  business,  farther 
than  the  late  hour  in  which  it  was  done;  you  know  my  system 
upon  that  subject,  and  how  firmly  it  was  my  opinion  that  you 
should  not  have  lost  one  moment  to  fight  the  battle  with  advantage. 


300  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

which  with  or  without  everybody  saw  must  be  to  be  fought.  But 
as  long  as  it  is  fought  honorably,  it  is  sure  to  be  successful  in  the 
end,  for  one  day  or  another  right  will  always  come  right. 

"  I  suppose  I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  have  answered  Lord 
Shelburne's  letter  by  the  official  information  he  desires,  adding  to 
it,  ^  7ny  fixed  purpose  firmly  to  decline  any  further  prosecution  in 
tills  business,  and  requesting  him,  as  sjjeedily  as  may  he,  to  lay 
hefiore  his  Majesty,  in  all  duty  and  humility,  my  earnest  and  irn- 
alterahle  prayer  that  he  will  he  graciously  pleased  to  recall  me 
from  the  commission  I  am  honored  with  at  Paris.' 

"I  write,  too,  to  beg  my  brother  to  press  my  immediate  return. 
I  see  by  his  letter  he  knows  nothing  of  what  has  passed  ',  if  you 
would  show  him  my  letters  to  you,  at  my  request,  under  the 
strictest  confidence,  he  will  be  apprised  of  the  true  state  much 
sooner  than  if  he  waits  till  I  come,  when  I  shall  certainly  tell  him. 
This,  however,  is  at  your  own  choice,  if  you  had  rather  wait  till  I 
come.  Adieu.  Pray  thank  Sheridan  for  his  letter;  I  will  write 
the  first  moment  my  messenger  is  gone.  What  a  time  to  be  out  of 
England,  et  Montauciel  u'y  etoit  pas.  I  don't  think  I  can  quite 
forgive  you.  No  news  here ;  they  say  they  have  taken  eighteen 
transports  from  us,  but  they  are  not  yet  come  into  Brest. 

"  Yours  most  affectionately, 

"THOMAS  GRENVILLE." 

[In  forming  our  judgment  of  these  transactions,  which  excited 
such  warmth  of  indignation  in  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Grenville,  we 
must  recollect  that  the  American  colonies,  as  they  were  still  con- 
sidered in  English  diplomacy,  were  in  Lord  Shelburne's  depart- 
ment, as  Secretary  of  State ;  and  that  though  he  had  been  pre- 
vented from  assuming  on  that  pretence  the  direction  of  the  gene- 
ral negotiations  for  peace,  his  friend  Mr.  Oswald  had  been  once 
sent  back  to  Paris,  by  order  of  the  Cabinet,  with  propositions  to 
Dr.  Franklin,  and  so  far  as  it  appears  had  never  been  recalled,  and 
might  therefore  still  be  considered  as  in  communication  with  the 
American  Minister,  and  entitled  to  hold  conversations  with  him 
on  public  business.     But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible  to 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  301 

justify  Lord  Shelburne  for  his  favorable  reception  of  so  important 
a  paper  as  the  one  he  had  received  from  Franklin  about  Canada, 
without  communicating  the  substance  of  it   at  least  to  his  col- 
leagues ;  nor  can  he  be  acquitted  of  presumption  in  proposing, 
without  their  knowledge,  a  separate  mission  to  negotiate  with  the 
American  Commissioners,  nor  of  want  of  judgment  in  leaving  to 
Franklin  the  decision  of  a  point  of  so  much  delicacy,  which  might 
affect  materially  the  future  progress  of  the  negotiation.     That 
this  suggestion  put  a  stop  to  the  proposed  confidential  communi- 
cation of  Franklin  to  Mr.  Grenville  is  not  improbable,  though 
Franklin  accounts  for  his  reserve  on  this  occasion  by  his  finding 
Mr.  Grenville's  powers  to  treat  defective;  but  if  we  may  judge 
of  the  value  of  such  communications  by  the  confidential  conver- 
sations he  had  with  Oswald,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  much 
was  lost  by  the  want  of  them.     He  would  have  drawn  from  Mr. 
Grrenville  what  he  could  for  the  advantage  of  his  own  country, 
and  given  him  nothing  in  exchange  but  honeyed  words  and  vague 
assurances  of  returning  affection.     He  was  in  truth  very  hostile 
to  England,  and  had  never  forgiven  the  treatment  he  received 
from  Wedderburn.     The  anecdote  denied  by  Mr.  Sparks,  that 
before  the  signature  of  the  preliminaries  of  peace  he  dressed  him- 
self in  the  coat  he  had  worn  at  the  Privy  Council  on  that  occa- 
sion, rests,  nevertheless,  on  authority  not  slightly  to  be  rejected. 
It  was  related  to  Lord  Holland  by  Lord  St.  Helens,  one  of  the 
plenipotentiaries  employed  in  negotiating  the  treaty,  and  the  last- 
ing impression  it  made  on  Lord  St.  Helens  leaves  little  doubt  of 
the  accuracy  of  his  recollection.     He  could  not  speak  without  in- 
dignation of  the  triumphant  air  with  which  Franklin  told  them 
he  had  laid  by  and  preserved  his  coat  for  such  an  occasion.] 

[Before  dismissing  the  subject,  it  may  be  proper  to  insert  some 
unfinished  remarks  Lord  Holland  has  left  on  these  occurrences, 
and  on  the  consequent  dissensions  they  produced  between  two 
persons  so  nearly  related  to  him  as  Mr.  Fox  and  Lord  Shelburne.] 
Of  these  interviews  and  conversations  (with  Mr.  Oswald  and  Mr. 
Grenville),  as  well  as  of  his  correspondence  with  Lord  Shelburne, 
Mr.  Fox,  and  others,  Dr.  Franklin  has  left  a  long  and  minute 
VOL.  I.— 26 


302  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

account  in  his  private  correspondence.  He  soon  perceived  that 
Mr.  Oswald  and  Mr.  Grenville  were  organs  of  two  distincts  wills 
in  the  Cabinet  of  St.  James's.  "  Mr.  Oswald/'  he  says,  ^^  appears 
to  have  been  the  choice  of  Lord  Shelburne,  Mr.  Grenville  that  of 
Mr.  Secretary  Fox.  Lord  Shelburne  is  said  to  have  acquired 
lately  much  of  the  King's  confidence.  Lord  Shelburne  seems  to 
wish  to  have  the  management  of  the  treaty;  Mr.  Fox  seems  to 
think  it  is  in  his  department."^  Franklin  at  that  time  preferred 
Oswald  to  GrenvillC;  and  there  are  traces  of  memoranda  and  other 
communications  from  Lord  Shelburne  to  Franklin,  of  which  Fox 
and  Grenville  had  no  cognizance  at  the  time.  Franklin  thought, 
at  this  period  of  the  negotiation  (end  of  May  and  beginning  of 
June),  that  Lord  Shelburne  and  his  immediate  agent  were  more 
inclined  to  concessions  to  America,  and  especially  of  Canada,  than 
Mr.  Fox,  whom  Oswald  described  as  startled  at  it,  but  to  whom 
it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  thus  early  communicated.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  Rockingham  Administration,  and  on  the  close  of  it, 
Franklin  seems  to  have  had  misgivings  of  the  designs  of  Lord 
Shelburne  respecting  the  independence  of  America,  and  to  have 
credited  the  report  of  Lord  Shelburne's  overruling  in  the  Cabinet 
Mr.  Fox's  decided  plan  of  "  unequivocally  acknowledging  Ameri- 
can independence,"  and  that  the  intention  of  that  party  in  the 
Cabinet  was  '^  to  retain  the  sovereignty  for  the  King."^  This 
suspicion,  which  reached  Franklin,  was  much  credited  at  the  time 
by  well-informed  persons.  Some  passages  in  Mr.  Fox's  speeches 
seem  to  indicate  a  defeat  in  the  Cabinet  on  the  subject  of  Ameri- 
can independence;  and  General  Fitzpatrick,  in  his  Journal,  dis- 
tinctly afl&rms  that  Mr.  Fox  had  resolved  before  Lord  Rocking- 
ham's death  to  resign,  because  he  had  been  "  outvoted  in  Cabinet, 
on  the  question  of  acceding  unconditionally  to  American  inde- 
pendence." On  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  the  Cabinet 
minute  of  the  18th  of  May,  preserved  in  Mr.  Fox's  papers,  where 
ten   of  the  Cabinet,  including  Lord  Shelburne  and  his  friends, 

•  Franklin's  Works,  by  Sparks,  ix.  335,  336. 
2  Ibid.  ix.  347,  362,  367. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  303 

were  present,  recommends  instructions  to  Mr.  Grenville  '^  to  make 
propositions  of  peace  to  the  belligerent  powers  upon  the  basis  of 
independence  to  the  thirteen  colonies  in  North  America,  and  of 
the  treaty  of  Paris/'  [to  which  might  be  added  the  Cabinet  minute 
of  the  23d  of  May,  instructing  Mr.  Grenville  to  propose  the  inde- 
pendence of  America  in  the  first  instance,  instead  of  making  it  the 
condition  of  a  general  treaty.] 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  dififer- 
ences  between  Lord  Shelburne  and  Mr.  Fox,  and  whatever  may 
be  thought  of  the  grounds  of  complaint  against  Lord  Shelburne, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  after  reading  the  preceding  letters,  that 
differences  of  opinion,  suspicions  of  underhand  dealing,  and  hostile 
cabals  and  intrigues,  and  great  resentment  thereupon,  subsisted 
in  the  minds  of  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Grenville ;  and  the  bare  exist- 
ence of  such  differences  unquestionably  persuaded  Mr.  Fox,  that 
the  public  business  of  the  country,  and  yet  more  particularly  the 
negotiations  for  peace,  could  not  be  conducted  with  advantage, 
with  such  dissensions  and  jealousies,  either  between  the  two 
Secretaries  of  State,  to  whose  hands  the  official  correspondence 
was  intrusted,  or  between  a  Secretary  of  State  and  Prime  Minis- 
ter, who  received  the  King's  pleasure  upon  them.  It  was  upon 
that  conviction — surely  not  unreasonable  —  that  his  resignation 
was  grounded,  and  upon  it  the  vindication  of  that  step  must  rest. 

[IRISH  CORRESPONDEXCE.] 

The  difficulties  which  the  Rockingham  Administration  had  to 
encounter  in  their  endeavors  to  preserve  peaee  and  restore  tran- 
quillity in  Ireland,  and  their  merit  in  overcoming  these  difficul- 
ties, which  was  chiefly  effected  by  the  confidence  in  their  princi- 
ples and  character,  will  be  made  apparent  by  the  following  letters 
and  correspondence  from  Irish  patriots  as  well  as  from  men  in 
office. 


304  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  33. 


EXTRACT  FROM  A  LETTER  OF   LORD  CILIRLEMONT  TO 

MR.    FOX.i 

"Dublin,  11th  April,  1782. 

"No  man  can  be  more  rejoiced  than  I  am  at  this  late  happy 
though  tardy  change.  I  rejoice  in  it  as  a  friend  to  individuals, 
but  more  especially  as  a  member  of  the  empire  at  large,  which 
will  probably  be  indebted  to  it  for  its  salvation.  I  hope,  also,  and 
doubt  not,  that  I  shall  have  reason  to  rejoice  in  it  as  an  Irishman, 
for  I  cannot  conceive  that  they  who  are  intent  upon  the  great 
work  of  restoring  the  empire,  should  not  be  ardently  attentive  to 
the  real  welfare  of  all  its  parts;  or  that  true  Whir/s,  genuine 
lovers  of  liberty,  whose  principles  I  know,  honor,  and  strive  to 
imitate,  should  not  wish  to  diflfuse  this  invaluable  blessing  through 
every  part  of  those  dominions  whose  interests  they  are  called  upon 
to  administer.  The  appointment  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and  of 
his  secretary,  is  a  good  presage.  I  know  and  respect  their  princi- 
ples, and  should  be  truly  unhappy  if  anything  in  their  conduct 
respecting  this  country  should  prevent  my  perfect  co-operation  with 
them.  For,  my  dear  Sir,  with  every  degree  of  affection  for  our 
sister  kingdom,  with  every  regard  for  the  interests  of  the  empire 
at  large,  I  am  an  Irishman ;  I  pride  myself  in  the  appellation, 
and  will  in  every  particular  act  as  such,  at  the  same  time  declar- 
ing that  I  most  sincerely  and  heartily  concur  with  you  in  thinking 
that  the  interests  of  England  and  of  Ireland  cannot  be  distinct  ] 
and  that  therefore,  in  acting  as  an  Irishman,  I  may  always  hope 
to  perform  the  part  of  a  true  Englishman  also. 

"  With  regard  to  what  you  hint  respecting  an  adjournment,  I 

'  [The  letter  of  Mr.  Fox,  to  which  Lord  Charlemont's  is  a  reply,  has 
been  published  in  Hardy's  Life  of  Lord  Chaiiemont  (p.  217) ;  and  so  also 
is  Lord  Charlemont's  answer,  from  which  the  following  extracts,  taken 
from  the  original  in  Lord  Charlemont's  handwriting,  are  printed,  partly 
on  account  of  their  connection  with  those  important  events  that  follow, 
and  partly  on  account  of  a  slight  omission  in  Mr.  Hardy's  edition  of  the 
latter,] 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  305 

sincerely  hope  it  will  not  be  desired,  as  the  matter  seems  to  me  to 
involve  some  great,  not  to  say  insurmountable  difficulties.  The 
eyes  of  all  the  nation  are  eagerly  fixed  on  the  meeting  of  the  16th. 
The  House  is  convened  for  that  day  by  this  very  particular  sum- 
mons, that  every  memher  should  attend,  as  he  tenders  the  rights  of 
Pai'liament.  The  declaration  of  independent  legislature  is  on  that 
day  to  be  agitated.  It  is  expected  by  the  people  with  the  most 
anxious  impatience,  and  the  minds  of  all  men  are  so  fixed  upon 
the  event  of  that  day,  which  they  have  every  reason  to  imagine 
will  be  favorable  to  their  wishes,  that  I  should  greatly  fear  the 
consequence  of  any  postponement,  especially  as,  from  sad  experi- 
ence, the  people  have  been  taught  to  suppose  that  a  question  post- 
poned is,  at  the  least,  weakened.  This  too  is  an  act  of  the  House, 
and  of  the  House  alone.  Government  has  nothing  to  say  to  it, 
nor  will  any  popularity  be  gained  to  the  Administration  which 
may  happen  to  be  present  at  the  carrying  this  question.  On  the 
contrary,  success  will  be  looked  upon  rather  as  a  defeat  than  as 
voluntary  acquiescence.  Such  are  the  difiiculties  which  occur. 
However,  though  they  may  appear  insuperable,  so  strong  is  our 
wish  not  to  throw  any  unnecessary  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the 
present  Administration,  that  we  shall  wait  to  be  determined  by 
events. 

^'  I  have  seen  Grattan,  and  have  communicated  the  kind  para- 
graph in  your  letter  respecting  him.  He  desires  his  most  sincere 
thanks  for  your  goodness  and  friendly  opinion  of  him.  TVe  are 
both  of  us  precisely  of  the  same  mind.  We  respect  and  honor  the 
present  Administration.  We  adore  the  principle  on  which  it  is 
founded.  We  look  up  to  its  members  with  the  utmost  confidence, 
for  their  assistance  in  the  great  work  of  general  freedom,  and 
should  be  happy  in  our  turn  to  have  it  in  our  power  to  support 
them  in  Ireland  in  the  manner  which  may  be  most  beneficial  to 
them,  and  most  honorable  to  us;  consulted  but  not  considered. 
The  people  at  large  must  indeed  entertain  a  partiality  for  the 
present  Ministers.  True  Whigs  must  rejoice  at  the  prevalence  of 
Whiggish  principles.  The  nation  wishes  to  support  the  favorers 
of  American  freedom,  the  men  who  opposed  the  detested,  the  cx- 


306  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

ecrated  American  war.  Let  our  7'i'c/7its  be  acknowledged  and 
secured  to  us — those  rights  which  no  man  can  controvert,  but 
which  to  a  ti^ue  Whig  are  self-evident — and  that  nation,  those 
lives  and  fortunes  which  are  now  universally  pledged  for  the 
emancipation  of  our  country,  will  be  as  cheerfully,  as  universally 
pledged  for  the  defence  of  our  sister  kingdom,  and  for  the  support 
of  an  Administration  which  will  justly  claim  the  gratitude  of  a 
spirited  and  grateful  people,  by  having  contributed  to  the  comple- 
tion of  all  their  wishes. 

"  I  am,  &c. 

"CHARLEMONT." 

The  affairs  of  Ireland  were  in  the  department  of  Lord  Shelburne, 
with  whom  of  course  all  official  communication  was  carried  on  by 
the  Irish  government.  But  while  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  who  was  Chief 
Secretary,  remained  in  Dublin,  there  was  a  continual  interchange 
of  letters  between  him  and  his  friend  Mr.  Fox.  Some  letters 
have  also  been  preserved  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  who  was  Lord 
Lieutenant.  From  these  materials  such  extracts  will  be  made  as 
throw  light  on  the  views  and  opinions  of  the  parties  on  Irish  affairs. 

EXTRACT  OF  A  LETTER  FROM  MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

ISth  April,  1782. 

'^  I  have  had  a  great  deal  of  conversation  this  morning  with  the 
Duke  of  Leinster,  who  seems  to  me  to  talk  reasonably  enough 
upon  the  affairs  of  Ireland.  Two  things  in  particular  that  he 
said  I  think  very  well  worth  your  attention.  One  is  an  idea 
which  he  started  of  having  a  bill  in  Ireland  similar  to  that  which 
Crewe  moves  here,  which,  he  says,  besides  the  popularity  of  it, 
would  be  of  incredible  advantage  to  the  revenue.  If  it  is  liked, 
I  really  think  it  unexceptionable,  for  the  more  independently 
Parliament  is  chosen  the  more  inclined  it  will  be  to  support  good 
government.  The  other  is  a  scheme  of  something  like  a  Cabi- 
net Council,  He  describes  the  want  of  concert  and  system  which 
comes  from  the  want  of  such  a  thing,  to  be  very  detrimental  in 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  307 

every  respect,  and  particularly  in  parliamentary  operations,  where 
those  who  wish  to  support  Government  often  do  not  know  till  the 
moment  what  is  the  plan  proposed,  and  consequently  are  wholly 
unable  to  support  it  either  systematically  or  effectually.  Another 
great  inconvenience,  which  he  attributes  to  this  want,  is  that  the 
Lord  Lieutenant,  not  having  any  regular  Ministry  to  apply  to,  is 
driven,  or  at  least  led,  to  consult  Lees  and  such  sort  of  inferior 
people,  and  by  that  means  the  whole  power  is  (as  it  was  here) 
centred  in  the  Jenkinsons  and  Robinsons,  &c.,  of  that  country. 
Nobody  is  responsible  but  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and  his  secretary ; 
they  know  they  are  to  go  away,  and  consequently  all  the  mischiefs 
ensue  that  belong  to  a  government  without  responsibility.^  I 
have  not  talked  with  anybody  upon  this,  nor  indeed  had  time  to 
think  it  over  myself,  but  it  really  strikes  me  as  a  matter  very 
well  worth  weighing,  and  I  wish  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  you 
would  turn  your  minds  to  it,  especially  if,,  as  I  take  for  granted, 
this  idea  was  suggested  to  the  Duke  of  Leinster  by  other  consid- 
erable men  on  your  side  of  the  water.  I  have  only  stated  it  to 
you  as  it  strikes  me,  upon  first  hearing  the  thing  broached. ^^ 

EXTPaCT  FROM  A  LETTER  OF  MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

'' April  15,  1782. 

"  I  have  seen  a  long  letter  from  Mr.  Ogilvie  to  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  containing  a  very  detailed  account  of  a  conversation 
with  Lord  Charlemont,  which  I  do  not  much  like.  It  seemed 
that  Lord  C.  wished  exceedingly  that  we  should  take  some  step  to- 
wards the  repeal  of  the  act  of  6th  Greorge  I.,  before  anything  else 
was  done  or  attempted.  I  mention  this  to  you,  that  pains  may  be 
taken  to  explain  why  that  was  not  done,  viz.,  that  it  was  perfectly 
inconsistent  with  the  intention  of  entering  into  a  treaty  to  settle 
finally  the  future  connection  between  the  two  countries,  to  take 
any  step  at  all,  previous  to  the  opening  of  that  treaty;  and  you  will 

^  It  is  curious  to  seethe  question  of  " responsible  government"  started 
in  Ireland  more  than  half  a  century  before  it  was  a  watchword  in  Canada. 
—J.  R. 


308  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

observe  that  tbis  same  reason  applies  to  the  not  passing  of  Yelver- 
ton's  Bill.  I  dare  say  it  was  unnecessary  to  say  all  this  to  you, 
but  I  am  really  so  anxious  for  the  success  of  your  Administration, 
and  have  such  a  dread  of  being  upon  ill  terms  with  persons  so 
like  ourselves  in  their  ways  of  thinking,  as  Lord  Charlemont  and 
Grattan,  that  I  cannot  forbear  thinking  and  writing  about  it  con- 
stantly.'^ 

MR.  FITZPATRICK  TO  MR.  FOX. 

"  Dublin  Castle,  Aj^ril  17,  1782. 
"  Dear  Charles  : — 

"  I  shall  begin  my  letter  with  giving  you  a  caution  concerning 
the  communication  of  its  contents  too  generally  on  your  side  of 
the  water,  and  with  another,  respecting  the  confidential  letters  you 
write  me,  which  you  had  better  never  trust  to  the  post,  as  we  havft 
the  misfortune  of  being  here  in  the  hands  of  the  tools  of  the 
last  Government,  and  there  is  even  reason  to  suspect  that  our  let- 
ters may  be  opened  before  they  reach  us.  I  wish  you,  therefore, 
to  trust  them  only  in  the  hands  of  messengers  ;  it  is  amazing  how 
deep  a  root  the  interior  Cabinet  had  taken;  and  you  will,  I  dare 
say,  soon  find  that  you  have  not  extirpated  it  effectually  by  the 
removal  of  its  principal  members.  If  you  have  time  to  read  it, 
I  shall  give  you  a  short  account  of  my  proceedings  here,  and  of 
the  opinions  I  have  formed  of  the  state  of  things.  The  first  person 
I  saw  after  landing,  before  I  could  go  out  to  pay  my  devoirs  at  the 
castle,  was  Charles  Sheridan,  and  as  I  knew  his  connections  with 
Grattan,  I  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  learning  his  intentions  at 
the  meeting  of  Parliament,  which  Sheridan  assured  me  were  by 
no  means  whatever  to  consent  to  the  adjournment.  I  informed 
him  of  our  proceedings  in  England,  and  used  every  argument  pos- 
sible to  induce  him  to  postpone  his  declaratory  resolutions,  which 
I  desired  Sheridan  to  convey  to  him,  and  at  the  same  time  ex- 
pressed a  wish,  if  he  did  not  object  to  it,  to  see  him.  I  then 
went  to  Lord  Charlemont,  to  whom  I  delivered  Lord  Rockingham's 
letter,  who,  with  the  utmost  degree  of  kindness  and  cordiality. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  309 

expressed  his  perfect  confidence  in  Administration ;  but  told  me 
he  had  just  left  a  meeting  at  Grrattan's,  where  it  had  been  deter- 
mined to  consent  to  no  adjournment,  as  they  considered  themselves 
pledged  to  the  public  positively  to  bring  forward  their  declaratory 
resolutions  on  that  day. 

"  My  having  made  my  first  application  to  Lord  Charlemont  (as 
I  foresaw  it  must)  gives  much  offence  to  the  supporters  of  the  late 
Government,  notwithstanding  which  I  determined  to  continue  my 
negotiation  with  Grattan,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  dissuade  him 
from  bringing  forward  his  resolutions ;  he  had  with  great  civility 
declined  meeting  me,  at  least,  till  after  the  16th,  and  persisted  in 
his  intention  of  consenting  to  no  adjournment,  unless  the  Duke 
of  Portland  would  pledge  himself  that  all  the  claims  of  Ireland 
should  be  agreed  to  :  urging,  that  the  question  being  sure  of  passing 
both  Houses  unanimously,  whatever  his  confidence  might  be  in 
the  new  Government,  he  should  be  responsible  to  the  public  should 
any  of  their  claims,  upon  coming  into  discussion,  be  afterwards 
refused.  I  complained  of  the  hardship  of  their  giving  us  no  more 
confidence  than  they  would  have  done  the  last  Government  had  it 
continued ;  upon  this,  he  said  he  would  consent  to  waive  his  reso- 
lutions, and  throw  them  into  the  form  of  an  address,  which,  he 
would  send  me  a  copy  of,  in  answer  to  the  message  it  was  sup- 
posed the  Duke  of  Portland  would  bring  to  the  House,  and  which 
he  considered  as  a  mode  less  harsh  and  offensive  to  the  English 
Parliament  than  the  intended  resolutions.  In  the  mean  time  I  saw 
the  Chancellor  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
former  of  whom  I  believe  an  honest  man,  but  the  latter  the  most 
undisguised  rogue  I  ever  met  with.  He  is  much  in  the  councils 
of  the  popular  leaders,  and  urges  them  on  to  every  excess  of  vio- 
lence, for  the  sake  of  popularity  I  suppose.  This  is  no  small  in- 
convenience, as,  in  all  the  House  of  Commons  business,  we  cannot 
avoid  being  very  much  in  his  hands.  I  had  information  from  several 
quarters,  that  many  supporters  of  the  last  Administration  were  all 
this  time  very  busy  in  endeavoring  to  indispose  the  minds  of  people 
towards  the  new  Ministers,  and  grounded  their  suspicions  of  them 
on  the  newspaper  representation  of  your  speech,  which  contained 


310  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

some  exceptional  expressions;  for  the  very  mention  of  the  words, 
supremacy  of  England,  is  enough  to  inflame  this  country  in  its  pre- 
sent ferment.  This  was  the  situation  of  things  on  Sunday  when 
the  Duke  arrived;  the  time  before  the  meeting  being  so  short,  he 
determined  to  converse  with  and  consult  as  many  persons  of  all 
descriptions  as  possible  upon  the  state  of  affairs,  and  the  proba- 
bility of  an  adjournment  being  obtained,  and  they  universally 
pronounced  it  impracticable.  Mr.  Grattan's  address  was  conceived 
in  such  peremptory  terms,  and  the  claims  contained  in  it  were  so 
extensive,  that  the  Duke  of  Portland  very  wisely,  I  think,  declined 
agreeing  to  its  being  moved,  and  the  Provost  and  Speaker  (the 
latter  of  whom  I  know  to  have  seen  and  approved  of  Grrattan's 
address,  though  he  pretended  to  lament  extremely  its  violence) 
undertook  to  draw  up  another,  which  should  contain  the  same 
substance,  but  be  softer  in  the  expression,  and  which,  if  moved  by 
some  person  authorized  by  us,  might  be  preferred  to  the  more 
violent  one;  this  they  accordingly  did ;  but  as  its  being  moved 
on  our  part  would  have  absolutely  pledged  the  Duke  of  Portland 
to  support  all  the  claims  contained  in  it,  it  was  judged  more  ex- 
pedient simply  to  move  a  common  address  in  answer  to  the  mes- 
sage, and  afterwards  submit  to  the  torrent  of  the  times ;  which 
prevented  a  single  man's  daring  to  open  his  lips  against  any  part 
of  Grattan's  amendment,  though  not  a  few,  even  of  the  most 
independent  men,  were  known  to  disapprove  of  parts  of  it;  some 
as  to  the  modification  of  Poynings's  law,  and  still  more  to  the 
claim  of  final  judicature.  You  will  see  a  short  account  of  the 
debate  pretty  accurately  drawn  up  by  one  of  the  under  secreta- 
ries. Debate  indeed  it  can  hardly  be  called,  since  that  implies  a 
free  discussion;  and  upon  this  occasion  no  one  man  presumed  to 
call  in  question  a  single  word  advanced  by  GJ-rattan,  and  spoke 
only  to  congratulate  Ireland  on  her  emancipation,  as  they  called 
it,  and  to  load  the  mover  from  every  quarter  of  the  House  with 
the  grossest  and  most  fulsome  adulation.  Grattan's  speech  was 
splendid  in  point  of  eloquence,  all  declamation ;  very  little,  and 
what  there  was,  weak,  argument;  his  manner,  I  think,  though 
certainly  very  animated,  affected  to  the  last  degree.     Though  the 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  811 

Duke  of  Portland  has  been  very  cautious  to  keep  himself  clear 
from  being  considered  as  pledged  in  the  smallest  degree,  every 
body  seems  completely  happy,  and  considers  the  whole  matter  as 
concluded. 

"  Upon  the  whole  of  this  business  I  see  the  matter  in  a  gloomy 
point  of  view;  you  have  sent  us  upon  a  hopeless  errand;  for  it 
was  too  late  even  to  prevail  upon  them  to  consider  for  a  moment 
what  they  were  doing,  and  the  real  truth  is,  that  there  is  no 
existing  government  in  this  country.  This  is,  I  firmly  believe,  in 
consequence  of  Lord  Carlisle  and  Mr.  Eden's  having,  under  the 
auspices  of  Lord  Hillsborough,  conducted  the  affairs  of  this  king- 
dom with  no  discredit  to  his  Majesty's  Government,  and  with 
many  increasing  advantages  to  both  kingdoms.  The  House  of 
Lords  have  gone  through  the  same  ceremony  to-day.  Charles 
Sheridan  thinks  all  this  mighty  fine,  and  very  promising;  so,  I 
dare  say,  will  his  brother;  so  far,  however,  I  agree  with  the  latter, 
that  the  repeal  of  the  6th  of  George  I.  must  absolutely  be  com- 
plied with,  right  or  wrong. 

"But  what  to  me  appears  the  worst  of  all  is  that,  unless  the 
heat  of  the  volunteers  subsides,  I  dread  G-rattan's.  For,  though 
everybody  seems  to  agree  that  he  is  honest,  I  am  sure  he  is  an 
enthusiast,  and  impracticable  as  the  most  impracticable  of  our 
friends  in  the  Westminster  Committee;  his  situation  is  enough  to 
turn  the  head  of  any  man  fond  of  popular  applause,  but  the  bril- 
liancy of  it  can  only  subsist  by  carrying  points  in  opposition  to 
Government ;  and  though  he  chose  to  make  a  comparison  yester- 
day between  Ireland  and  America,  giving  the  preference  to  his 
own  country,  I  confess  I  think  the  wise,  temperate,  systematic 
conduct  of  the  other,  if  adopted  by  Ireland,  would  bring  all  these 
difiiculties  to  a  very  short  and  happy  conclusion,  to  the  satisfac- 
tion and  advantage  of  both  parties.  Lord  Shelburne's  speech 
gives  great  satisfaction  here,  and  probably  if  there  had  been  any 
chance  of  soothing  this  country  into  moderation,  would  have  done 
infinite  mischief.  It  is  curious  enough  that  while  he  is  recom- 
mending us  to  support  the  authority  of  England  more  than  we 


312  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

either  can  or,  I  think,  ought  to  do,  he  should  be  declaring  in  the 
House  of  Lords  that  the  claims  of  Ireland  must  be  acceded  to. 

"  You  will  probably  be  anxious  in  England  at  not  having  heard 
an  account  sooner,  but  the  Duke  of  Portland  has  been  writing  a 
very  full  account  of  everything,  and  the  wind  has  been  constantly 
adverse.  I  hope,  however,  you  will  be  speedy  in  your  resolutions. 
I  promise  you  the  case  admits  of  no  delay.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons is  adjourned  to  Monday,  and  perhaps  they  will  immediately 
proceed  to  bring  in  bills  for  these  purposes.  Long  debates  in  your 
Cabinet  upon  these  matters  will  be  very  dangerous. 

'^  Adieu. 
"Yours  affectionately, 

"R.  F." 

"  P.  S.  Since  writing  all  this,  I  have  received  a  message  from 
Grattan,  through  Sheridan,  and  shall  see  him  to-morrow;  from 
Sheridan's  conversation  I  have  better  hopes  than  I  had  conceived; 
for  Grattan  is  of  opinion  to  let  us  proceed  without  hurry,  and  wait 
till  we  hear  from  you,  and,  besides  that,  I  believe  that,  from  having 
changed  the  mode  from  resolutions  to  address,  he  considers  some 
part  of  the  matter  as  still  open  to  fair  discussion,  not,  however, 
the  repeal  of  George  I. ;  certainly,  however,  he  seems  strongly 
disposed  to  abate  at  least  the  rapidity  of  his  proceedings,  and  I 
am  convinced  that  the  real  disposition  of  L-eland  is  to  an  indis- 
soluble connection.'' 

[It  is  very  evident  from  this  clear  and  circumstantial  letter, 
that  to  obtain  an  adjournment  of  the  Irish  Parliament  before 
some  resolution  or  address,  declaratory  of  the  claims  of  the  Irish 
people,  had  been  carried,  was  become  impracticable.  It  had  been 
thought  otherwise  by  some  members  of  the  English  Government. 
Lord  Shelburne,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  written  before 
what  had  passed  in  Ireland  was  known  in  England,  seems  to  think 
it  still  possible  to  prevail  on  the  Irish  Parliament  to  adjourn  with- 
out the  previous  discussion  of  these  questions.]  "As  to  your 
affairs,"  he  says,  in  a  letter  to  Mr,  Fitzpatrick,  of  the  19th  of 
April,  "it  will  give  me  a  bad  opinion  of  Mr.  Grattan's  head,  who 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  313 

am  inclined  to  have  a  very  good  one  both  of  his  head  and  heart, 
if  he  objects  to  the  adjournment.  The  only  thing  I  fear  of  you, 
is  giving  way  too  easily.  It  is  incredible  how  much  is  got  by  argu- 
ing and  persevering.  Tell  them  that  peace  may  be  made  in  a 
moment,  and  it  behooves  them  to  make  the  most  of  the  instant, 
and  conclude  on  reasonable  terms.  I  beseech  you,  above  all 
things,  be  distinct  and  explicit.'' 

[After  these  efforts  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant  and  of  his  Secretary, 
to  procure  an  adjournment  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  till  they  had 
instructions  from  England  how  to  act,  it  is  not  a  little  surprising 
that  Mr.  Dundas  should  have  ventured  to  assert  in  the  English 
House  of  Commons,  that  the  address  moved  by  Mr.  Grattan  ori- 
ginated from  the  Irish  Government.  A  flat  contradiction  to  this 
assertion  was  given  to  this  on  the  spot  by  Mr.  Fitzpatrick ;  and 
the  following  letter  of  Mr.  Grattan,  of  a  later  date,  not  only  places 
the  matter  beyond  a  doubt,  but  explains  the  motives  of  his  perti- 
nacity on  that  occasion.] 

MR.  GRATTAN  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

'' March  21,  1785. 
*'  Dear  Sir  : — 

"  I  was  favored  a  few  days  ago  with  your  letter  of  the  10th. ^ 
I  had,  before  I  received  it,  intended  to  have  taken  some  opportu- 
nity in  debate  to  declare  what  I  did  in  private  to  several  gentle- 
men, that  the  Address  of  the  16th  of  April,  1782,  did  not  origi- 
nate with  Government ;  that  the  Duke  of  Portland's  Administra- 
tion had  expressli/  informed  me  that  they  were  not  responsible  for 
it,  either  to  England  or  to  Ireland;  that,  therefore,  it  could  not 
be  moved  as  an  original  address  in  answer  to  the  King's  message; 
that  if  I  chose  to  move  it  by  way  of  amendment,  I  might,  but  the 
Administration  could  not,  and  would  not,  be  responsible  for  it. 
So  little  did  I  conceive  the  then  Government  originating  the  Ad- 
dress of  the  16th  of  April,  1782,  that  I  went  to  the  House  under 

1  Published  in  Memoirs  of  Mr,  Grattan,  vol.  ii.  p.  276. 
VOL.  I. — 27 


314  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  33. 

some  apprehension  of  an  opposition  to  it  from  them.  Their  ob- 
ject, I  recollect,  was  adjournment,  as  my  object  was  not  to  lose  one 
hour,  inasmuch  as  I  knew  perfectly  well  that  the  Government 
could  not  defeat  us.  I  considered  the  principles  of  your  Adminis- 
tration very  benign  to  our  rights ;  but  I  know  you  did  not  wish 
at  that  period  specifically  to  pledge  the  English  Government  to 
anything. 

"  In  this  manner  I  stated  the  transaction,  which  is  exactly  as 
your  letter  represents.  Mr.  Fitzgibbon  could  not  know  it ;  he  had 
not  then  the  smallest  wish  to  misstate,  but  was  not  circumstan- 
tially apprised  of  the  transaction." 

The  day  after  Mr.  Fitzpatrick's  letter  of  the  17th,  Mr.  Grattan 
wrote  to  Mr.  Fox.^ 

"  Aj)ril  18,  1782. 
^'  Sir  :— 

^'  I  shall  make  no  apology  for  writing ;  in  the  present  posture  of 
things  I  should  rather  deem  it  necessary  to  make  an  apology  for 
not  writing.  Ireland  has  sent  an  Address,  stating  the  causes  of 
her  discontents  and  jealousies;  thus  the  question  between  the  two 
nations  becomes  capable  of  a  specific  final  settlement.  We  are 
acquitted  of  being  indefinite  in  discontents  and  jealousy;  we  have 
stated  the  grounds  of  them,  and  they  are  those  particulars  in  which 
the  practical  constitution  of  Ireland  is  diametrically  opposite  to  the 
principles  of  British  liberty.  A  foreign  legislationy  a  foreign 
judicature,  a  legislative  Privy  Council^  and  2i,  perpetual  army.  It 
is  impossible  for  any  Irishman  to  be  reconciled  to  any  part  of  such 
a  constitution,  and  not  to  hold  in  the  most  profound  contempt  the 
constitution  of  England.  Thus  you  cannot  reconcile  us  to  your 
claim  of  power,  without  making  us  dangerous  to  your  liberty;  and 
you  also  will,  I  am  confident,  allow  that,  in  stating  such  enormities 
as  just  causes  of  discontents  and  jealousy,  we  have  asked  nothing 
'which  is  not  essential  to  our  liberty.     Thus  we  have  gained  another 

^  Published  in  the  Life  of  Mr.  Grattan,  by  his  son,  vol.  ii.  pp.  243-248. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  315 

step  in  the  way  to  a  settlement.  We  have  defined  our  desires  and 
limited  them,  and  committed  ourselves  only  to  what  is  mdispensa- 
hie  to  our  freedom;  and  have  this  further  argument,  that  you  have 
thought  it  indispensable  to  yours.  One  question  then  only  re- 
mains— whether  what  is  necessary  for  us  to  have,  is  safe  and 
honorable  to  Grreat  Britain  ? 

"  The  perpetual  Mutiny  Law,  and  the  legislative  power  exer- 
cised by  the  councils  of  both  kingdoms,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
dwell  upon,  inasmuch  as  I  make  no  doubt  you  hold  them  to  be 
mischievous  or  useless  to  England.  The  legislative  power  of  the 
Council  can't  be  material  to  the  connection,  though  the  necessity 
of  passing  bills  under  the  seal  of  Great  Britain  may  be  so.  The 
power  of  suppressing  in  the  Irish,  and  of  altering  in  the  English 
Council,  never  has  been  useful  to  England ;  on  the  contrary,  fre- 
quently the  cause  of  embarrassment  to  British  Government.  I 
have  known  Privy  Councillors  agree  to  bills  in  Parliament,  and  in 
Council  alter  them  materially  by  some  strong  clause  inserted  to 
show  their  zeal  to  the  King,  at  the  expense  of  the  popularity  of 
Government.  In  England,  an  Attorney-General,  or  his  clerk, 
from  ignorance,  or  corruption,  or  contempt,  may,  and  often  has, 
inserted  clauses  in  Irish  bills  which  have  involved  Irish  Govern- 
ments in  lasting  consequences  with  the  people ;  for  you  must  see 
that  a  servant  of  Government  in  Great  Britain,  uninformed  of  the 
passions  of  Ireland,  may,  in  the  full  exercise  of  legislative  power, 
do  irreparable  mischief  to  his  King  and  country,  without  being 
responsible  to  either. 

"  I  could  mention  several  instances,  but  a  Mutiny  Bill  ren- 
dered perpetual  is  a  sufficient  one,  to  show  how  impolitic  that  law, 
which  commits  the  machine  of  the  constitution  and  the  passions  of 
the  human  mind,  to  the  hand  of  one  man.  The  negativing  our 
bills  is  a  right  never  disputed ;  the  poisoning  them  is  a  practice  we 
do  most  ardently  deprecate,  from  sound  reason  and  sad  experience. 
I  brought  to  Parliament  a  list  of  the  alterations  made,  for  the  last 
ten  years,  in  Irish  bills  by  the  Privy  Council  or  Attorney-General, 
and  there  was  not  a  single  alteration  made  upon  a  sound  legisla- 
tive motive ;  sometimes  an  alteration  to  vex  the  Presbyterians, 


316  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

made  by  the  bishops ;  sometimes  an  alteration  made  by  an  over- 
zealous  courtier,  to  make  Government  obnoxious,  and  to  render 
himself  at  the  same  time  peculiarly  acceptable  to  the  King ;  some- 
times an  alteration  from  ignorance,  and  not  seldom  for  money. 

"I  shall,  therefore,  suppose  the  power  of  the  Council  no  object 
to  a  principled  Administration,  and  no  vital  question  between  the 
two  kingdoms.  We  shall  have  then  cleared  the  way  to  the  great 
question  of  supremacy  ;  for  I  conceive  the  legislative  and  judica- 
tive supremacy  to  be  one  question.  If  you  retain  the  legislative 
power,  you  must  reserve  the  final  determination  of  law,  because 
you  alone  will  determine  the  law,  in  support  of  your  claim ; 
whereas,  if  you  cede  the  claim,  the  question  of  judicature  is  one 
of  private  property,  not  national  ascendency,  and  becomes  as  use- 
less to  you  as  it  is  opprobrious  to  us.  Besides,  there  are  circum- 
stances which  render  the  appellant  judicature  to  you  the  most 
precarious  thing  imaginable.  The  Lords  of  Ireland  have  on  their 
journals  a  resolution,  that  they  are  ready  to  receive  appeals ;  so 
that,  after  the  final  settlement  with  England,  if  the  judicature  was 
not  included,  any  attorney  might  renew  the  contest.  The  decrees 
of  the  Lords  of  England,  and  of  the  King's  Bench  likewise  affect- 
ing Ireland,  are  executed  hi/  the  officers  of  the  Courts  of  Justice  of 
Ireland.  The  judges  of  Ireland  are  now  independent.  Two  of 
the  barons,  or  judges,  may  put  a  total  stop  to  the  judicature  of 
the  Lords  of  England,  by  refusing  to  lend  the  process  of  their 
Courts;  so  that,  in  order  to  determine  your  final  judicature,  it 
would  be  unnecessary  to  go  further  than  the  authority  of  a  few 
judges,  independent  of  England  by  their  tenure,  dependent  on 
Ireland  by  their  residence,  and  perhaps  influenced  by  conscience 
and  by  oath.  Besides,  the  6th  of  George  I.  is  enacting,  as  to  the 
appealing,  as  well  as  the  judicative  power.  If  the  former  part 
stands,  we  are  divested  of  our  supreme  judicature  by  an  actual 
exercise  of  your  supreme  legislative  power,  and  then  a  partial 
repeal  would  be  defective  upon  principles  legislative,  as  well  as 
jurisdictive.  You  can't  cede  yoHr  legislative  claim,  and  enjoy 
your  jurisdictive  under  its  authority  and  exercise;  and  the  whole 
law  must  (if  the  claim  of  legislature  is  ceded)  fall  totally.     The 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  317 

question  then  between  the  two  nations  is  thus  reduced  to  one 
point :  Will  England  cede  the  claim  of  supremacy  ?     You  seem 
willing  to  cede  it.     Your  arguments  have  led  to  it.     When  I  say 
your  arguments,  I  mean  the  liberal  and  enlightened  part  of  Eng- 
land.   Both  nations,  by  what  they  have  said — one  by  what  it  has 
admitted,  and  the  other  by  what  it  has  asserted — have  made  the 
claim  of  England  impracticable.     The  reserve  of  that  claim  of 
course  becomes  unprofitable  odium,  and  the  relinquishment  is  an 
acquisition  of  affection  without  a  loss  of  power.     Thus  the  ques- 
tion between  the  two  nations  is  brought  to  a  mere  punctilio  :   Can 
England  cede  with  dignity  ?     I  submit  she  can  )  for  if  she  has 
consented  to  enable  his  Majesty  to  repeal  all  the  laws  respecting 
America,  among  which  the  Declaratory  Act  is  one,  she  can  with 
more  majesty  repeal  the  Declaratory  Act  against  Ireland,  who  has 
declared  her  resolution  to  stand  and  fall  with  the  British  nation, 
and  has  stated  her  own  rights  by  appealing  not  to  your  fears,  but 
your  magnanimity.     You  will  please  to  observe  in  our  Address  a 
veneration  for  the  pride,  as  well  as  a  love  for  the  liberty  of  Eng- 
land.    You  will  see  in  our  manner  of  transmitting  the  Address, 
we  have  not  gone  to  Castle  with  volunteers  as  in  1779.     It  was 
expedient  to  resort  to  such  a  measure  with  your  predecessors  in 
office.     In  short,  Sir,  you  will  see  in  our  requisition  nothing  but 
what  is  essential  to  the  liberty  and  composure  of  our  country,  and 
consistent  with   the  dignity   and   interest  of  the   other.     These 
things  granted,  your  Administration  in  Ireland  will  certainltj  meet 
with  great  support.     I  mean  national   as  well  as  parliamentary. 
In  consequence  of  these  things,  some  laws  will  be  necessary — an 
act  to  quiet  property  held  under  former  judgments  or  decrees  in 
England;  a  Mutiny  Bill;  a  Bill  to  modify  Poynings's  Law.    Pos- 
sibly it  might  be  judicious  that  some  of  these  should  be  moved 
by  the  Secretary  here — it  would  contribute  to  his  popularity.     It 
will  be  perhaps  prudent  to  adjourn  to  some  further  day,  until  the 
present  Administration  have  formed. 

"  Before  I  conclude,  I  will  take  the  liberty  to  guard  you  against 
a  vulgar  artifice^  which  the  old  Court  (by  that  I  mean  the  Carlisle 
factioii)  will  incline  to  adopt.     They  will  perhaps  write  to  Eng- 

27^'- 


318  COERESPONDENCE    OF'  [^ETAT.  33. 

land  false  suggestions,  that  Ireland  will  be  satisfied  with  less,  and 
that  the  Irish  Administration  are  sacrificing  to  Irish  popularity 
British  rights,  and  then  they  will  instigate  Ireland  to  stand  upon 
her  ultimatum,  and  thus  embarrass  Government  and  betray  the 
people.  I  know  this  practice  was  adopted  in  Lord  Buckingham's 
Administration,  by  men  mortified  by  his  frugality. 

"  Might  I  suggest,  if  you  mean  (as  I  am  well  inclined  to  be- 
lieve, and  shall  be  convinced  by  the  success  of  our  application)  a 
Government  by  privilege ;  that  it  would  be  very  beneficial  to  the 
character  of  your  Government  in  Ireland,  to  dismiss  from  their 
official  connections  with  Government  some  notorious  consciences,  to 
give  a  visible,  as  well  as  real,  integrity  to  his  Majesty's  Councils 
in  Ireland,  and  to  relieve  them  from  a  certain  treachery  in  men, 
who  will  obey  you  and  betray  you. 

"  It  would  be  prudent  to  exhibit  to  the  public  eye  a  visible  con- 
stitutional Administration.  The  people  here  have  a  personal 
antipathy  to  some  men  here  who  were  the  agents  of  former 
corruption,  and  would  feel  a  vindictive  delight  in  the  justice  of  dis- 
carding them.  When  I  say  this,  I  speak  of  a  measure  not  neces- 
sary absolutely,  if  the  requisitions  are  complied  with,  but  very 
proper  and  very  necessary  to  elevate  the  character  of  your  Govern- 
ment, and  to  protect  from  treachery  your  consultations ;  and  when 
I  say  this,  it  is  without  any  view  to  myself,  who,  under  the  consti- 
tutional terms  set  forth,  am  willing  to  take  any  part  in  the  Admi- 
nistration, provided  it  is  not  emolumentary.  Your  minister  here 
will  find  very  great  opportunities  for  vigorous  retrenchment,  such 
as  will  not  hazard  him  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  may  create 
an  enthusiasm  in  his  favor  without  doors. 

"  I  am  running  into  immoderate  length,  and  beg  to  conclude 
with  assurances  of  great  constitutional  hopes,  and  personal  admi- 
ration, and  am,  with  great  respect, 

^'  Your  most  humble  and  obedient  servant, 

"H.  GRATTAN." 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  319 

MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  GRATTAN.i 

"  Grafton  Street,  April  27,  1782. 
"  Sir  :— 

"I  have  received  the  honor  of  your  letter  of  the  18th  inst., 
and  am  exceedingly  obliged  to  you  for  it.     The  business  of  Ire- 
land becomes  so  very  important  that  it  would  be  very  imprudent 
in  me  (especially  as  it  is  not  within  my  drpartment)  to  give  any 
direct  opinion  upon  the  various  points  which  make  the  subject  of 
your  letter.     What  I  do  think  myself  at  liberty  to  say  is,  that  it 
is  my  ardent  wish  that  matters  may  be  so  settled  as  to  give  satis- 
faction to  both  countries ;  and  above  all,  that  whatever  settlement 
is  made,  may  be  so  made  as  to  preclude  all  future  occasions  of 
dispute  between  two  nations  upon  whose  mutual  union  the  pros- 
perity of  both  so  unquestionably  depends.     That  as  close  a  con- 
nection may  subsist  between  us  as  the  nature  of  the  case  will 
admit,  must  be  my  wish  as  an  Englishman.     That  this  connec- 
tion may  be  such  as  may  consist  with  the  liberty  and  happiness 
of  Ireland,  I  must  wish  as  a  Whig,  and  as  one  who  professes  to 
hold  the  natural  rights  of  mankind  far  more  sacred  than  any  local 
prejudices  whatever.    I  am  sure  I  share  those  feelings  in  common 
with  your  Lord-Lieutenant  and  his  Secretary,  and  if  ever  you 
should  think  it  worth  while  to  inquire  into  my  political  sentiments 
upon  any  point,  you  may  always  be  pretty  sure  of  them  when  you 
know  those  of  these  two  persons.     With  respect  to  the  last  part  of 
your  letter,  I  can  have  no  scruple  to  say,  that  it  gives  me  the 
greatest  degree  of  pleasure ;  because  whatever  measures  may  be 
pursued,  I  am  certain  no  Government  can  have  the  confidence  of 
the  people  while  it  has  the  misfortune  to  reckon  the  most  bril- 
liant talents,  and  the  most  respectable  characters,  among  the  num- 
ber of  its  opponents.     I  differ  very  widely  indeed  from  Mr.  Eden, 
who  seems  to  consider  an  opposition  of  less  importance  in  propor- 
tion to  the  virtue  and  character  of  those   who  compose  it.     Pray 
give  my  best  respects  to  Lord  Charlemont,  and  believe  me  to  be, 

with  great  truth  and  regard,  &c., 

"C.  J.  FOX." 

»  Published  in  the  Life  of  Mr.  Grattan,  by  his  son,  voL  ii.  p.  252. 


320  CORRESPONDENCE    OE  [^TAT.  B3. 

"With  the  answer  to  Mr.  Grattan  was  sent  the  following  letter 
to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  : — 

"St.  James's,  April  28,  3782. 
^'  My  dear  Dick  : — 

''  As  I  understand  a  messenger  is  to  go  to-night  to  Ireland,  I 
shall  send  this  by  him,  and  can  therefore  write  with  entire  confi- 
dence upon  the  affairs  of  both  kingdoms.  First,  with  respect  to 
those  of  Ireland,  I  am  sadly  afraid  that  we  do  not  understand  one 
another  rightly.  You  seem  to  expect,  and  to  be  impatient  for  a 
determination  from  hence,  while  we  rather  wait  for  further  sugges- 
tions from  the  Duke  of  Portland.  His  last  letter,  though  a  most 
excellent  account  and  description  of  what  had  passed  at  Dublin, 
does  not  contain  or  even  hint  at  the  measures  he  wishes  to  be 
pursued,  so  that  we  are  in  point  of  future  measures  just  where  we 
were  when  he  left  us.  It  would  have  been  very  lucky  if  he  had 
explained,  whether  he  thought  it  advisable  to  enter  into  any  treaty 
with  Ireland,  and  if  he  did,  what  mode  of  treating  would  be 
most  pleasing.  If  nothing  of  this  sort  is  to  take  place,  I  wish  he 
had  suggested  what  steps  he  could  wish  to  be  taken  here,  whether 
a  mere  repeal  of  the  6th  of  George  I.  would  do.  I  own  I  still 
adhere  to  my  opinion,  that  giving  way  in  everything,  without  any 
treaty  or  agreement  which  shall  be  binding  upon  both  countries, 
can  answer  no  end  but  that  of  obtaining  quiet  for  a  few  months. 
You  know  how  strongly  some  people  here  object  to  a  Parliament- 
ary Commission,  and  yet  I  see  no  other  tolerable  way  out  of  the 
business.  We  who  are  for  it  should  have  been  very  much 
strengthened,  if  we  had  had  the  Duke  of  Portland's  opinion  for 
such  a  measure ;  and  if  it  is  not  his  opinion,  we  should  have  been 
glad  to  relinquish  it  and  to  adopt  his  ideas,  if  we  knew  them.  As 
the  matter  now  stands,  I  am  very  apprehensive  of  misunderstand- 
ings. The  answer  to  the  Address  ought  neither  to  please  nor  dis- 
please any,  otherwise  than  as  the  laying  of  the  addresses  before 
the  English  Parliament  certainly  seems  to  look  to  the  repeal  of 
English  statutes.  But  when  they  are  laid,  you  will  probably  ex- 
pect us  to  take  some  step  upon  them ;  whereas  we  think,  we 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   EOX.  321 

ought  to  wait  till  something  is  done  with  you,  or  at  least  till  we 
hear  from  you.    My  opinion  is  clear  for  giving  them  all  that  they 
ask,  but  for  giving  it  them   so  as  to  secure  us  from  further  de- 
mands, and  at  the  same  time  to  have  some   clear  understanding 
with  respect  to  what  we  are  to  expect  from  Ireland,  in  return  for 
the  protection  and  assistance  which  she  receives- from  those  fleets 
which  cost  us  such  enormous  sums,  and  her  nothing.     If  they 
mean  really  well  to  their  country,  they  must  wish  some  final  ad- 
justment which  may  preclude  further  disputes;  if  they  mean  no- 
thing but  consequence  to  themselves,  they  will  insist  upon  these 
points  being  given  up,  simply  without  any  reciprocal  engagement, 
and  as  soon  as  this  is  done,  begin  to  attack  whatever  little  is  left 
in  order  to  continue  the  ferment  of  the  country.     In  one  word, 
what  I  want  to  guard  against  is  Jonathan  Wild's  plan  of  seizing 
one  part  in  order  to  dispute  afterwards  about  the  remainder.     I 
have  had  a  long  letter  from  Grattan,  a  copy  of  which  I  send  you 
inclosed.     I  like  very  much  the  latter  part  of  it,  and  approve 
quite  of  his  idea  of  removing  obnoxious  persons,  or,  as  he   calls 
them,  in  his  very  strange  and  affected  language,  notorious  con- 
sciences.    Unless  you  can  give  your  Government  quite  a  differ- 
ent face  from  that  of  your  predecessors  you  cannot  make  that 
figure  which  you  ought  to  do ;  and  though  I  do  not  understand 
rightly  what  share  it  is  that  Grattan  means  to  take  in  it,  yet  if 
you  can  make  him  take  any,  I  am   sure  it  must  be   of  infinite 
utility.     The  people  of  every  country  always  do,  and  always  must 
look  to  meiiy  and  will  never  believe  you  to  be  cordial  in  adopting 
any  measure  as  long  as  you  continue  in  hostility  with  the  friends 
to  it,  and  in  friendship  with  its  enemies.     You  will  observe  that 
a  great  part  of  his  letter  is  spent  upon  the  Judicial  supremacy  of 
England,  the  retaining  of  which,  in  a  national  view,  I  do  not 
think  worth  one  farthing  when  the  legislative  is  gone.     Many 
people  think  it  better  for  Ireland  that  it  should  remain  ;  if  so,  let 
the  Irish  desire  it,  not  we  to  whom  it  can  be  of  no  importance. 
I  have  inclosed  you  my  answer  to  Grattan,  which  is  perfectly 
general,  but  which  I  hope  he  will  not  consider  on  that  account  as 
unfriendly,  because  he  must  see  how  very  improper  it  would  be 


099 


CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 


in  me  to  give  him  my  opinion  upon  such  important  points,  before 
that  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant  and  the  rest  of  the  King's  servants 
is  declared.  I  do  not  think  the  difficulties  upon  commercial  points 
will  be  great,  nor  do  I  believe  the  interests  of  the  countries  can 
clash  in  that  respect  more  than  in  others,  if  they  are  considered 
with  any  degree  of  enlargement  and  liberality.  Grattan  seems  to 
be  very  willing  to  give  time ;  but  the  misfortune  is,  that  till  we 
hear  more  from  you  we  do  not  know  what  use  to  make  of  that 
time." 

From  this  period  the  affairs  of  Leland  began  to  brighten.  On 
the  same  day  that  Mr.  Fox  complained  to  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  of  the 
silence  of  the  Irish  Government  on  the  measures  to  be  adopted  in 
England,  the  Duke  of  Portland  wrote  to  him  as  follows  : — * 

''Dublin  Castle,  April  28,  1782. 
^^  My  dear  Sir  : — 

^^Lord  Strangford  is  a  very  poor  and  a  very  sfiahhy  peer,  but  I 
will  let  him  know  that  you  have  sent  me  his  letter,  and  that  his 
application  shall  be  attended  to  at  a  proper  time.  I  have  written 
so  fully  to  Lord  Shelburne  that  it  is  almost  unnecessary  for  me  to 
trouble  you  upon  the  same  subject  ]  but,  as  I  conceive  somewhat 
better  hopes  than  I  would  venture  to  express  to  Lord  S.,  and  as  I 
know  that  that  circumstance  will  not  induce  you  or  the  some  of 
you  to  delay  or  to  haggle,  I  may  own  to  you,  that  I  do  not  believe 
the  people  of  this  country  inexorable  or  determined  to  reject  all 
ideas  of  treaty.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  some  preliminaries 
need  not  be  granted  before  the  negotiation  takes  place,  because  I 
am  convinced  that  they  will  not  listen  to  any  propositions  until 
the  independence  of  the  legislature  is  promised,  and  the  necessary 
(for  so  it  appears  to  me,  as  an  Englishman)  alteration  of  their 
Mutiny  Bill  is  agreed  to.  These  two  points  conceded,  and  an  en- 
gagement on  your  parts  to  enter  into  a  fair  discussion  for  the  pur- 

*  Published,  with  inconsiderable  omissions,  in  the  Life  of  Mr.  Grattan, 
by  his  son,  vol.  ii.  p.  272. 


1782.]  CHAELES   JAMES   FOX.  323 

pose  of  settling  the  judicature  and  Poynings's  Law,  would,  I  believe, 
compose  their  spirits  and  incline  them  to  adopt  measures  and  modes 
of  treating,  without  which  I  do  not  see  a  possibility  of  terminating 
the  business.  I  foresee  very  considerable  difficulties  in  drawing 
the  line  of  that  independence  which  I  advise  to  be  conceded,  and 
for  which  they  so  earnestly  contend,  and  I  must  add,  that  the  em- 
barrassment will  increase  every  day  the  question  is  kept  open  j 
but  yet  I  am  sanguine  enough  to  hope  that  an  appearance  of  the 
sincerity,  which  I  am  sure  our  friends  possess,  would  go  a  great 
way  in  removing  the  difficulties  which  this  state  of  suspense  tends 
daily  to  create.  Fitzpatrick  has  sent  you  as  regular  information 
as  the  wind  would  permit;  but  without  being  upon  the  spot,  I 
will  venture  to  say,  that  no  man  can  judge  of  or  foresee  the  varia- 
tions, or  rather  advancement,  in  the  demands  and  expectations 
which  frequently  occur  to  us.  I  am  more  sanguine  than  he  is 
inclined  to  be,  and  to  expect  more  from  the  two  concessions  I  re- 
commend to  be  speedily  made,  than  he  thinks  me  authorized  or 
entitled  to  hope  for.  I  foresee  great  difficulties  on  your  side  in 
consenting,  and  on  this  in  accepting  anything  less  than  the  imme- 
diate repeal  of  the  6th  of  Greorge  I.  ;  and  yet  I  would  not  despair 
of  some  middle  term  being  thought  of  which  would  answer  the  pur- 
pose, if  I  was  instructed  to  assure  them  that  the  independence  of 
their  legislature  would  certainly  be  conceded,  that  is,  supported, 
in  Parliament  by  the  present  Ministry.  I  had  some  conversation 
with  Grattan  upon  the  mode.  He  was  very  reasonable,  and  pro- 
fessed the  strongest  disposition  to  accommodate,  saying  that  his 
7'eason  for  preferring  the  Address  to  resolutions  was,  that  he  thought 
the  Parliament  of  Ireland  less  pledged  to  adherence  hy  the  one  than 
the  other.  He  also  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  any  concession 
on  the  part  of  England  being  considered  here  as  matter  of 
favor;  that  it  was  the  duty  of  this  country  to  consult  our  honest 
pride,  and  that  if  the  language  did  not  afford  words  that  would 
reconcile  our  feelings  to  the  measures  we  might  think  it  right  to 
adopt,  in  the  present  crisis,  words  should  be  made  for  the  purpose. 
He  suggested  that  the  preamble  of  an  act  for  granting  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Irish  legislature  (not  absolutely  insisting  upon 


324  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

the  repeal  of  6th  of  George  I.,  but  certainly  not  pointing  out  any 
mode  by  way  of  substitution)  might  run,  '•  Whereas  it  is  rightful,' 
conceiving  that  the  ambiguous  sense  of  that  word  might  gratify 
the  feelings  of  the  two  countries.  Our  conference  was  interrupt- 
ed by  a  foolish  ceremony  that  could  not  be  avoided,  and  I  have  not 
seen  him  since  till  the  levee  of  to-day,  when  I  desired  an  early 
opportunity  of  renewing  the  discourse,  to  which  he  most  readily 
assented.  I  have  given  you  an  exact  account  of  the  parts  of  the 
conversation  which  have  given  rise  to  my  expectations.  Fitzpat- 
rick  thinks  they  go  too  far ;  but  I  leave  you  and  our  friends  to 
draw  their  own  inferences.  I  should  myself  be  fearful  of  these 
effects  elsewhere.  I  will  not  now  detain  you  any  longer ;  but  I  can- 
not conclude  this  letter  without  expressing  to  you  my  most  anxious 
wishes  for  a  speedy  and  favorable  determination.  There  is  still  an 
appearance  of  Government;  but  if  you  delay,  or  refuse  to  be 
liberal,  Government  cannot  exist  here  in  its  present  form,  and  the 
sooner  you  recall  your  Lieutenant,  and  renounce  all  claim  to  this 
country,  the  better;  but,  on  the  contrary,  if  you  can  bring  your 
minds  to  concede  largely  and  handsomely,  I  am  persuaded  that 
you  may  make  any  use  of  this  people,  and  of  everything  they  are 
worth,  that  you  can  wish;  and  in  such  a  moment  it  will  be  happy 
for  them  that  the  Government  of  England  shall  be  in  hands  that 
will  not  take  undue  advantage  of  their  intoxication. 

"  Ever  most  sincerely  yours,  &c., 

''PORTLAND." 

[Intelligence  having  arrived  in  London  that  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment had  adjourned  on  the  4th  of  May,  Mr.  Fox  wrote  to  Mr. 
Fitzpatrick  in  better  spirits,  so  far  as  Irish  affairs  were  concerned.] 

MR.   FOX   TO   MR.   FITZPATRICK. 

"J/a?/ll,  1782. 

"We  had  just  made  up  our  minds  to  bring  on  the  Irish 
business  in  Parliament  here,  when  the  Duke  of  Portland's  dis- 
patch of  the  5th  of  this  month  arrived.     The  news  it  contained 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  825 

of  adjournment  of  your  Parliament,  and  the  expectation  it  gave 
of  another  letter  soon  from  the  Duke,  have  induced  us  to  wait  till 
we  hear  again  from  you.  I  really  begin  to  have  hopes  that  this 
business  will  terminate  better  than  I  had  expected;  and  that  with 
a  concession  of  internal  legislation  as  a  preliminary,  accompanied 
with  a  modification  of  Poynings's  Law,  and  of  a  temporary  Mu- 
tiny Bill,  we  may  be  able  to  treat  of  other  matters,  so  amicably, 
as  to  produce  an  arrangement  that  will  preserve  the  connection 
between  the  two  countries." 

Of  the  further  proceedings  in  Irish  affairs,  during  the  remainder 
of  the  summer,  there  are  no  documents  in  the  manuscript  collec- 
tions at  Holland  House.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  act  of  the  6th 
George  I.,  for  the  better  securing  the  dependency  of  the  kingdom 
of  Ireland  on  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  was  repealed  by  the 
English  Parliament,  and  with  this  repeal  the  Irish  people  and 
Irish  Parliament  were  at  first  quite  satisfied.  But  doubts  having 
been  started  whether  claims  then  abandoned  might  not  be  revived, 
and  Lord  Mansfield  having  decided  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench 
an  Irish  cause,  which  had  been  brought  into  his  Court  before  the 
act  of  George  I.  was  repealed,  all  Ireland  was  again  in  a  flame; 
insomuch  that  in  the  following  year  it  was  thought  prudent  to 
pass  a  bill  renouncing  in  the  most  express  terms,  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain,  all  authority,  legislative  or  judicial,  over  Ireland. 
The  following  letters  from  Mr.  Yelverton  and  Mr.  Grattan,  written 
during  Lord  Shelburne's  Ministry,  in  which  frequent  allusions  are 
made  to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Fox,  will  show  what  were  the  opinions 
of  the  best  Irish  lawyers  and  patriots  on  the  necessity  of  this 
measure. 

MR.  YELVERTON   TO   MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

'' December  Zl,  \1%2. 
^'  Dear  Sir : — 

"I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  your  kind  communication  of 
what  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  for  giving  me  an 
opportunity  of  explaining  my  sentiments  on  the  subject.     Ever 
VOL.  I. — 28 


326  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

since  you  left  this  kingdom,  the  doctrine  of  renunciation  has  been 
gaining  ground.  Almost  all  the  volunteer  corps  have  declared 
either  for  that  or  a  Bill  of  Rights,  and  so  have  even  two  or  three 
county  meetings.  It  was  in  vain  to  argue  that  the  national  faith 
was  pledged  to  the  repeal  of  the  6th  George  I.,  and  that  this  had 
all  the  effect  of  renunciation,  if  it  was  not  renunciation  itself; 
for  that  the  6th  Greorge  I.  was  only  a  judgment  pronounced  by 
England  in  her  own  favor,  and  that  the  repeal  of  the  act  was  a 
reversal  of  the  judgment.  The  people  did  not  understand  the 
subject,  and  were  therefore  easily  misguided.  You  know  that  Mr. 
Flood's  harangues  first  led  them  astray,  but  Lord  Beauchamp's 
pamphlet  completed  the  delusion.  You  cannot  conceive  what  a 
mischievous  effect  that  pamphlet  produced,  particularly  in  the 
north.  But,  notwithstanding  all  this  clamor,  I  should  have  been 
of  opinion  that  every  attempt  to  carry  the  compact  between  the 
two  kingdoms  one  iota  beyond  the  terms  agreed  upon  in  the  Duke 
of  Portland's  Administration,  ought  to  have  been  resisted,  if  Lord 
Mansfield's  decision,  coming  at  the  time  it  did,  had  not  given  a 
new  turn  to  affairs.  That  decision,  though  in  ray  opinion  no 
violation  of  the  compact,  is  by  many  of  the  best  affected  men  in 
this  country  considered  as  such,  and  has  given  very  great  umbrage, 
and  even  taught  many  to  believe  that  the  late  adjustment  is 
imperfect,  and  that  something  is  yet  wanting  to  give  it  security 
and  force.  In  order  to  quiet  those  jealousies,  we  could  think  of 
nothing  better  here,  than  that  some  act  of  your  Legislature  should 
pass,  which  should  have  for  its  avowed  object  to  deprive  the 
English  Courts  of  the  appellate  jurisdiction  (a  measure  to  which 
I  am  glad  to  find  the  Attorney-General  sees  no  objection),  and 
which  should  anticipate  Lord  Beauchamp  on  the  point  of  renun- 
ciation, by  reciting  in  the  preamble  that  the  British  Parliament 
had,  by  the  repeal  of  the  6th  George  L,  renounced  all  legislative 
and  judicial  poiuers  over  Ireland;  in  short,  an  act,  the  preamble 
of  which  should  be  the  declaration  of  Mr.  Fox,  and  the  measure 
of  the  Attorney-General  the  enacting  part ;  which  should  not 
introduce  renunciations  as  anything  new,  but  explain  it  as  a  thing 
already  done.     If  an  act  of  this  kind  were  passed;  I  have  every 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  327 

reason  to  believe  it  would  give  perfect  satisfaction.  The  people 
already  begin  to  expect  something  to  this  effect,  and  to  express 
their  pleasure  at  the  prospect  of  seeing  it  accomplished.  The 
adherents  to  G-rattan  will  be  pleased  with  it,  because  it  will  prove 
the  truth  of  what  they  have  always  asserted,  that  the  British 
nation  was  sincere,  and  that  the  repeal  of  the  6th  Greorge  I.  was 
intended,  and  did  operate  as  a  renunciation ;  and  even  the  disciples 
of  Flood  will  not  dislike  it,  because  they  will  claim  the  credit  of 
it,  though  without  any  just  foundation.  It  will  set  the  good  faith 
of  England  in  a  conspicuous  point  of  view,  and  at  the  same  time 
clap  an  extinguisher  on  Irish  sedition. 

"I  agree  entirely  with  the  Attorney-General,  that  the  Irish 
Act  for  reforming  erroneous  judgments  and  decrees  has  sufficiently 
secured  the  final  judicature  to  Ireland;  because,  as  he  very  truly 
observed,  if  a  writ  of  error  were  to  be  now  brought  to  remove  a 
cause  into  England,  the  Irish  judges  would  pay  no  regard  to  it, 
unless  it  can  be  presumed  that  they  would  act  in  open  defiance  of 
their  own  law.  And  it  is  also  my  opinion  that  Lord  Mansfield 
was,  strictly  speaking,  justifiable  in  what  he  did.  The  practice  of 
removing  causes  from  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  in  Ireland  to  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench  in  England  was  coeval  with  the  first  union 
of  the  two  kingdoms  under  one  Sovereign.  Before  the  late  ad- 
justment took  place,  an  Irish  cause  had  been  removed  into  Eng- 
land, pursuant  to  this  ancient  practice.  The  cause  was,  therefore, 
become  English;  it  was  a  part  of  the  business  of  Lord  Mansfield's 
court;  it  was  his  duty  to  dispose  of  it  as  such,  and  no  law  of  ours 
could  prevent  him  from  doing  so.  Besides,  the  whole  proceeding 
is  nugatory.  It  was  so  much  breath  wasted  and  time  misspent ; 
for  Lord  Mansfield's  judgment  cannot  now  be  received  in  this 
kingdom.  But  it  matters  not  so  much  how  this  proceeding  ought 
to  operate,  as  how  it  really  does  operate.  All  men  are  not  lawyers. 
It  is,  therefore,  generally  considered  as  a  breach  of  English  faith 
— it  certainly  has  all  the  appearance  of  a  breach — and  if  it  is  not 
repaired  in  some  way  or  other,  I  fear  it  will  produce  all  the  mis- 
chiefs of  a  real  infringement.     If  the  way  proposed,  or  something 


328  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

like  it,  be  adopted,  either  Ireland  will  be  happy  and  contented,  or 
she  does  not  deserve  to  be  so. 

"  In  the  accounts  which  I  have  seen  of  the  conversation  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  I  do  not  think  anything  seems  to  be  mis- 
stated, though  I  presume  the  accounts  are,  on  the  whole,  very 
imperfect.  It  gives  your  friends  here  great  pleasure  to  find  that 
you  still  interest  yourself  in  Irish  affairs,  and  that  Mr.  Fox,  in  his 
manly  and  liberal  declaration,  has  done  justice  to  himself  and 
them.  I  barely  know  Mr.  Fox's  person,  and  am  not  at  all  ac- 
quainted with  Mr.  Burke,  but,  as  I  have  an  ambition  to  know  them 
both,  I  beg  you  may  give  my  compliments  to  them,  and  assure 
them  of  the  great  respect  in  which  I  hold  their  characters;  with- 
out concealing  from  them,  however,  that  I  was  once  jealous  of 
them  for  the  opinions  which  I  conceived  they  held  upon  the  affairs 
of  Ireland,  though,  I  am  now  happy  to  find,  without  any  just 
foundation." 

MR.  GRATTAN  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

"Dublin,  January  5,  1783. 
"  Dear  Sir  : — 

"  I  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  a  copy  of  your  letter  to  the 
Attorney- Grcneral.  It  is  fully  adequate  to  the  honorable  senti- 
ments, and  agreeable  to  the  private  and  public  faith,  which  you 
have  shown  in  every  transaction  in  which  you  have  been  concerned. 
Mr.  Fox's  conduct  and  declaration  I  must  acknowledge  and  feel; 
they  are  liberal  to  Ireland,  and  just  to  those  lately  concerned  in 
her  redemption ;  and  I  must  say  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and 
those  connected  with  him,  that  there  are  no  hands  in  which  the 
government  of  a  country,  or  the  honor  of  individuals  can  be  more 
safely  deposited. 

*^As  to  my  sentiments,  which  you  are  pleased  to  inquire  after, 
relative  to  Irish  affairs,  they  are  conformable  to  Mr.  Yelverton's 
letter,  viz.,  a  bill  relative  to  the  Judicature,  with  a  preamble  ex- 
planatory of  the  repeal.  It  occurred  to  me  when  I  read  Lord 
Beauchamp's  pamphlet,  that  when  his  intended  bill  was  rejected, 
a  resolution  might  follow,  similar  to  that  which  we  adopted  in 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  329 

Ireland,  asserting  the  independency  of  the  Irish  Parliament  to 
have  been  already  recognized  by  the  repeal,  and  the  question  of 
legislature  settled  thereby. 

"Lord  Mornington  and  I  have  had  several  conversations  on 
Irish  affairs ;  he  is  most  fully  possessed  of  my  mind  on  all  political 
subjects — a  great  friend  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's  government, 
and  personally  acquainted  with,  and  I  believe  attached  to  you.  I 
shall  only  add  my  sincere  wishes  on  every  public  and  personal 
consideration  for  your  health,  prosperity,  and  power,  and  am,  dear 
Sir, 

"Yery  cordicilly,  with  great  respect 
"And  regard, 

"  Your  most  humble  servant, 

"H.  GRATTAN." 

MR.  GRATTAN  TO  MR.  FTTZPATRICK. 

"Dawson  Street,  February  18,  1783. 
"  Dear  Sir  : — 

"  I  most  entirely  agree  with  you  on  the  Irish  subject,  that  the 
measure  to  be  adopted  was,  to  assert  the  security  of  the  British 
Parliament  against  clamor.  We  had  done  so  by  resolution  in 
the  Parliament  of  Ireland,  when  we  rejected  Mr.  Flood's  Bill  of 
Right.  Corresponding  measures  in  Great  Britain,  had  supported 
both  Parliaments  against  the  growth  of  demand,  had  cut  up  every 
road  or  pretence  of  doubt.  The  faith  of  nations  had  been  vindi- 
cated, and  those  who  accused  Great  Britain  of  prevarication  had 
not  been  encouraged.  Y^ith  respect  to  the  bill  which  I  under- 
stand is  brought  in  by  Government,  from  what  I  can  collect  it  is 
not  our  idea  at  all,  but  does  us  as  great  injustice  as  our  merits  are 
capable  of  receiving.  However,  where  the  substance  purports 
repeated  security  to  our  freedom,  I  acquiesce  in  the  formation, 
however  injurious  to  me. 

"  I  think  we  had  a  right  to  be  warranted  by  the  Parliament  of 
England  when  we  vindicated  her  sincerity;  however,  we  must 
have  no  personal  feelings  on  the  subject.      My  language  to  the 

28* 


330  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

Lord-Lieutenant  was,  ^consult  measures,  not  men;  you  will  do 
whatever  you  think  will  add  to  public  security  or  your  own  ease/ 
I  understand  the  difficulties  to  the  mode  which  we  desired  were 
started  by  Lords  Thurlow  and  Asbhurton.  In  short,  we  were  in 
a  situation  in  which  we  would  not  deprecate  anything.  This  was 
the  idea  of  Yelverton,  myself,  and  some  others. 

"  I  most  warmly  feel  your  conduct,  and  that  of  Mr.  Fox,  on 
the  day  of  asking  leave  to  introduce  the  bill.  I  lament  that  the 
formation  of  it,  and  the  government  of  both  kingdoms,  was  not 
in  both  your  hands.  I  think,  in  that  case,  the  confidence  we 
placed  in  the  sincerity  of  the  Parliament  of  England  had  been 
justified  and  encouraged. 

"I  should  have  answered  your  letter  before,  but,  by  an  accident, 
did  not  receive  it  until  the  other  day.  I  request  to  be  remem- 
bered to  Mr.  Fox ;  and  believe  me  to  be,  with  great  sincerity,  high 
esteem,  and  respect, 

"  Your  most  faithful,  humble  servant, 

''H.  GRATTAN." 

"It  is  reported  here  that  the  Opposition  in  England  are  be- 
come strong,  and  that  Mr.  Fox  will  come  into  power.  If  so,  it 
is  not  too  late ;  amend  the  Irish  bill  according  to  your  own  idea.^' 

[Before  quitting  the  subject  of  Irish  politics  during  the  Rock- 
ingham Administration,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  notice  a  sug- 
gestion made  to  the  Duke  of  Portland,  of  obtaining  from  the 
Irish  Parliament  an  acknowledgment  of  the  "  supremacy  of 
Great  Britain  in  all  matters  of  state  and  general  commerce." 
This  project  was  devised  by  Mr.  Ogilvie,  husband  of  the  Duchess 
Dowager  of  Leinster ;  communicated  by  him  to  the  Duke  of 
Portland,  as  a  measure  in. which  the  leading  Irish  politicians 
might  be  induced  to  concur ;  eagerly  embraced  by  the  Duke ;  and 
conveyed  by  him  to  Lord  Shelburne,  who,  in  the  absence  of  his 
colleagues,  expressed  his  own  satisfaction  with  the  plan.  The 
scheme,  however,  turned  out  to  be  a  mere  vision  of  Mr.  Ogilvie's; 
and  it  would  not  deserve  to  be  noticed  at  all,  if  it  had  not  been 


1782.]  CHAELES    JAMES   FOX.  331 

"brought  forward  by  Mr.  Pitt,  in  1799,  as  one  of  his  proofs  that 
the  Irish  settlement  of  1782  was  not  considered  as  a  final  measure, 
even  by  its  authors.  The  correspondence  on  this  suggestion  by 
Mr.  Ogilvie,  was  read  by  Mr.  Pitt  in  the  House  of  Commons,* 
and  has  been  republished  by  Mr.  Henry  Grattan,  in  his  Memoirs 
of  his  father.''  Mr.  Grattan  has  also  reprinted  a  private  letter 
from  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  to  his  father,  in  1800,  giving  a  history  of 
the  transaction,  obtained  from  Mr.  Ogilvie ;  but  having  omitted 
his  father's  reply,  it  is  here  subjoined,  as  not  only  most  character- 
istic of  that  most  eminent  and  excellent  man,  but  expressive  of 
his  favorable  recollections  of  the  fair  and  open  conduct  of  Mr. 
Fox  in  1782.] 

MR.  GRATTAN  TO  THE  RIGHT  HON.  R.  FITZPATRICK. 

'' February  U,  [1800]. 

^^  Dear  Sir  : — 

^' Your  letter  of  the  28th  I  did  not  get  till  this  moment.  Being 
directed  to  me  as  '  Right  Honorable,'  the  Post-Office  affected  not 
to  know  me,  and  the  letter  remained  either  there  or  at  the  Parlia- 
ment House,  and  came  to  me  this  morning  with  an  inscription, 
^  not  known.'  I  am  vexed  at  not  having  received  it  before,  be- 
cause I  must  have  appeared  to  you  dilatory  and  improper,  in  not 
giving  it  an  immediate  answer.  I  am  excessively  glad  to  find 
that  you  and  I  entirely  concur  upon  the  subject  of  the  Duke  of 
Portland's  dispatch.  When  Mr.  Pitt  stated  it,  I  was  not  able  to 
read,  and  nobody  was  suffered  to  speak  to  me  on  the  subject  of 
public  matters.  I  heard  of  it  after,  and  had  a  conversation  re- 
garding it  with  Mr.  Fox,  who  said  he  believed  it  a  sudden  idea  of 
the  Duke  of  Portland's,  adopted  without  communication  or  con- 
sult, and  as  suddenly  dropped.  I  never  saw  the  Duke's  dispatch ; 
but,  understanding  that  he  had  mentioned  a  communication  with 
somebody  in  Ireland  on  the  subject  of  it,  I  had  a  curiosity  to 
inquire^  and  found,  to  my  astonishment,  that  it  was  Mr.  Ogilvie. 

'  Hansard's  Debates,  xxxiv.  977-982. 
2  Memoirs  of  Henry  Grattan,  ii.  284-291. 


332  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

I  was  not  at  that  time  acquainted  with  Mr.  Ogilvie,  at  least,  to 
the  best  of  my  recollection.  However,  an  event  of  so  unim- 
portant a  nature  as  my  first  acquaintance  with  him,  I  may  not 
accurately  retain  in  my  memory ;  but  this  I  accurately  remember, 
that  I  never  permitted  myself  to  be  approached  by  Mr.  Ogilvie  in 
the  character  of  a  statesman.  I  have  not  the  least  recollection  of 
the  transaction  he  states  ;  but  this  I  know  positively,  that  neither 
Lord  Charlemont  nor  myself  would  have  communicated  with  Mr. 
Ogilvie  upon  any  public  business  confidentially — least  of  all,  on 
that  which  the  dispatch  refers  to.  Had  the  measure  been  of  no 
consequence,  and  had  we  been  disposed  to  it,  it  was  not  through 
such  a  man  as  Mr.  Ogilvie  we  should  have  communicated  our  sen- 
timents to  the  Lord-Lieutenant.  In  short,  we  would  not  have 
talked  seriously  with  Mr.  Ogilvie  upon  any  political  subject.  He 
was  not  a  member  of  Parliament;  he  was  not  a  politician;  he  was 
not  an  L-ishman ;  and  he  was  an  entire  stranger  to  me,  and,  I 
believe,  to  my  Lord  Charlemont. 

'^  Mr.  Ogilvie,  as  the  husband  of  the  Duchess  of  Leinster,  was 
entitled  to  respect ;  but,  as  a  statesman,  would  have  exposed  him- 
self to  much  ridicule,  and  would  have  exposed  any  public  measure 
and  those  who  communicated  with  liim.  If,  therefore,  he  at  that 
time  brought  such  a  proposal,  which  I  have  not  the  least  recol- 
lection of,  we  must  have  marvelled  at  his  presumption,  and 
laughed  at  his  project.  I  remember,  afterwards,  in  ^85,  at  the 
time  of  the  propositions,  to  have  had  some  political  communica- 
tions with  him,  in  common  with  others  of  the  Opposition,  which 
was  at  that  time  very  general  and  numerous.  He  was  at  that 
time  in  Parliament,  in  Opposition,  and  a  partisan,  v/ho  wrote  a 
pamphlet.  I  recollect,  afterwards,  I  think  it  was  in  the  year  ^87, 
being  visited  by  Mr.  Ogilvie,  upon  his  going  to  England.  He 
came  to  me,  and  wished  to  have  my  sentiments  touching  a  new 
Irish  Administration,  which  he  imagined  at  that  time  he  might 
be  able  to  form,  upon  seeing  his  friends  in  England ;  and  I  shall 
never  forget  a  very  obliging  and  liberal  olfer  which  he  made  me 
at  that  time,. namely,  the  place  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  this  of  his  own  mere  motion,  without  any  authority  whatso- 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  333 

ever  from  any  persons  in  power.  At  first,  I  laughed  at  the  con- 
versation with  as  much  civility  as  I  could,  wishing  to  put  an  end 
to  such  senseless  importunity ;  but,  recollecting  immediately  that 
he  might  go  to  England,  and  state  that  I  had  tolerated  his  over- 
tures, I  told  him  explicitly  that  I  would  take  no  office  under  the 
Crown,  being  paid  by  the  people.  His  solution  was  prompt  and 
ingenious.  ^  You  may  take  the  office,  and  the  salary  you  may 
give  to  your  clerk,  which  I  am  ready  to  be.'  These  are  the  only 
political  communications  I  ever  recollect  to  have  had  with  this 
enlightened  statesman  ;  and,  from  the  nature  of  them,  you  may 
see  how  far  he  was  authorized  to  undertake,  or  to  say  anything  for 
my  Lord  Charlemont  or  myself,  on  the  subject  of  the  dispatch  by 
the  Duke  of  Portland,  in  which  the  Duke  was  totally  unauthorized, 
most  lamentably  weak,  and  appears  to  be  a  poor  conspirator 
against  his  own  measures  and  against  his  own  Cabinet,  in  con- 
junction with  a  gentleman  who  would  have  given  an  air  of  ridi- 
cule to  any  measure,  and  who  appears  to  have  been  employed  to 
negotiate  a  business  which  would  have  damned  the  first  character 
in  this  kingdom. 

"  I  perfectly  recollect  the  conversation  you  state  to  have  taken 
place  in  the  House  of  Commons  between  you  and  Mr.  Flood,  and 
the  very  fair  and  honorable  part  which  you  took  through  the 
whole  of  that  business;  and,  however  English  Cabinets-  and 
English  Secretaries  have  sometimes  been  disingenuous  to  Ireland, 
I  feel  a  pleasing  recollection,  even  now,  that  there  were  two  with 
whom  I  was  connected,  you  and  Mr.  Fox,  in  whose  open  dealing 
our  country  and  all  her  friends  might  repose  entire  confidence. 

"Perhaps  I  shall  see  you  once  more.  If  so,  I  shall  rejoicej 
if  not,  I  shall  always  remember  you  with  affection.  Eemember 
me  to  Mr.  Fox;  tell  him  I  did  not  stay  a  moment  in  London, 
otherwise  I  should  have  gone  to  see  him.  I  am  glad  to  find  that 
he  is  so  much  recovered  from  that  terrible  accident. 

"  The  Union  I  fear  will  be  carried.  If  it  be,  it  is  because  the 
Government  will  have  bought  the  Parliament,  and  dragooned  the 
people.  I  think  it  will  prove  ultimately  bad  for  both  kingdoms; 
for  it  will  not  be  an  union  of  affection  nor  of  honor,  but  of  hatred 


334  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

and  contempt,  perfidy  and  meanness.  I  thought  it  better,  not- 
withstanding the  infirmity  of  my  head,  and  my  inability  to  enter 
into  any  House  of  Commons  contest,  to  make  an  efi'ort,  and  bear 
my  last  testimony  for  the  constitution  of  '82.  I  find  myself 
better,  but  am  not  yet  able  to  write,  and  therefore  I  have  gotten 
a  gentleman  to  write  this  for  me.  I  conclude  by  assuring  you 
how  sincerely 

"  I  am  yours, 

"HENRY  GRATTAN." 

"  I  am  not  certain  whether  we  did  not  dine  together  at  Mr. 
Ogilvie's  in  '82;  if  so,  I  must  have  known  him  at  that  time;  but 
you  will  recollect  we  were  then  in  power,  and  more  likely  to  be 
invited  by  persons  we  were  scarcely  acquainted  with." 

[Mr.  Fitzpatrick  had  previously  communicated  with  Mr.  Fox, 
and  had  received  from  him  the  following  account  of  his  recollec- 
tions of  what  had  passed  on  this  subject  in  1782;  from  which  it 
will  be  seen  that  whatever  hopes  might  have  been  at  one  time 
entertained  of  establishino-  the  connection  between  the  two  kino;- 
doms  on  a  more  solid  and  permanent  basis  than  was  effected  by 
the  settlement  of  1782,  these  hopes  were  speedily  extinguished, 
and  the  measures  that  might  have  been  founded  on  them  entirely 
abandoned.] 

''February  19,  1799. 

"  Dear  Dick  : — 

"Before  I  received  your  letter,  the  debate  between  you  and  Pitt 
had  led  me  to  recollect  as  much  as  I  could  of  what  passed  in  1782  ; 
and  the  contents  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's  private  letter  are  not 
very  diiferent  from  what  I  guessed  them  to  be;  only  as  it  was  a 
private  letter,  I  should  have  thought  it  more  likely  to  have  been 
addressed  to  Lord  Rockingham,  or  to  me,  than  to  Lansdowne. 
The  date  of  it  being  anterior  to  your  answer  to  Flood,  in  my 
opinion,  sets  all  right;  for  I  well  remember  that  those  hopes,  held 
out  by  the  Duke  of  Portland,  vanished  almost  as  soon  as  they 
were  communicated,  and  possibly  even  before  he  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  conversing  with  you  about  them,  certainly  many  days 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  835 

before  jour  debate  with  Flood;  for  if  the  Duke  of  Portland  would 
answer  truly,  I  am  sure  he  would  say  that  twenty-four  hours,  or, 
as  I  believe,  much  fewer,  were  the  term  of  their  duration.  Ogilvie 
was  the  channel  through  which  they  were  communicated  to  him, 
whose  officiousness  probably  made  him  act  without  any  authority; 
and,  if  I  remember  right,  the  Dulie  of  Portland's  letter  was  written 
in  a  hurry,  just  as  the  dispatches  were  coming  away,  before  he 
had  time  to  ascertain  the  value  of  Ogilvie's  intelligence.  I  think 
I  had  all  this  in  a  subsequent  conversation  from  the  Duke  of 
Portland ;  and  if  there  is  any  mention  in  the  letter,  or  at  that 
time,  about  proroguing  or  not  proroguing  the  Parliament,  I 
suppose  that  is  what  Pitt  alluded  to  in  another  debate.  The  Duke 
of  Portland  could  not  but  communicate  such  intelligence  to  us, 
but  neither  could  he  have  allowed  you  to  make  your  speech  in 
answer  to  Flood  without  contradiction,  unless  he  had  been  con- 
vinced of  the  impracticability  or  ineligibility  of  what  he  had  before 
suggested ;  and,  therefore,  whether  or  not  the  ministers,  at  the 
moment  it  was  made,  might  wish  some  addition  to  the  settlement, 
it  is  evident  that  within  a  few  days,  or  at  most  weeks,  they  con- 
sidered it  as  final.  It  certainly  must  have  been  so  understood 
when  the  two  Parliaments  were  prorogued  without  any  ulterior 
measure  being  announced ;  and  it  would  be  a  most  insignificant 
dispute  about  dates,  whether  it  became  to  be  considered  as  final  at 
the  time  of  the  royal  assent  being  given  to  the  regulations  of 
Poynings's  Law,  &c.,  or  at  the  time  of  your  speech,  or  at  that  of 
the  prorogation.  On  the  other  hand,  if  ulterior  measures  were 
necessary,  why  were  they  not  taken  by  the  then  Ministry?  It  is 
true.  Lord  Rockingham's  death,  and  Lord  John's  and  my  resig- 
nation, made  a  considerable  change  in  the  Ministry,  but  with  the 
exception  of  us  three  the  whole  Cabinet  remained;  and  what  did 
Pitt,  who  became  a  part  of  it,  hear  upon  the  subject  among  his 
colleagues  at  that  time  ?  Why,  he  heard  that  another  bill  was 
necessary,  not  for  the  purpose  of  acknowledging  the  superintending 
power,  &c.,  but  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the  complete  Inde- 
pendence still  more  unequivocal,  and  therefore,  according  to  the 
present  doctrine,  of  fixing  more  firmly  that  puerile  and  imprac- 


336  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

ticahle  system,  &c.  The  Coalition  Administration  succeeded,  at 
the  head  of  which  was  the  very  Lord-Lieutenant  whose  opinions 
are  quoted,  and  the  mover  of  the  second  proposition  (myself)  an 
active  member  of  it.  Yet  no  ulterior  step  is  taken,  and  the 
settlement  therefore  considered  as  final.  Then  comes  Pitt  himself; 
no  measure  taken  to  remedy  this  defective  system,  yet  the  affairs 
of  Ireland  were  under  his  most  particular  consideration,  ay,  and 
the  second  resolution,  too;  which,  he  contended,  contained  in  it 
something  like  a  tacit  promise  of  his  Irish  propositions,  and  yet 
not  a  step  taken  to  insure  any  unity  in  matters  of  state.  As  to 
general  Laws  of  Commerce^  also,  not  a  word  tending  to  give  Great 
Britain  any  sort  of  imperial  power  in  the  propositions  as  he 
brought  them  down ;  and  whatever  was  afterwards  proposed  on 
this  head,  was  to  obviate  objections  which  had  arisen  in  the 
course  of  the  transaction.  Pitt  then,  in  1785,  having  the  affairs 
of  Ireland  in  his  view,  and  particularly  adverting  to  the  second 
resolution  of  1782,  still  considered  the  settlement  as  final,  and 
that  no  imperial  power  was  wanting.  Some  such  power  in  regard 
to  commerce  (but  none  ever  in  matters  of  state^  he  found  to  be 
necessary  during  the  course  of  the  debates  on  the  propositions;  but 
this  necessity  arose  only  out  of  the  propositions  themselves,  and 
not  out  of  the  former  settlement,  and  accordingly,  when  the 
propositions  fell,  this  necessity  ceased  likewise,  and  no  measure 
was  proposed  by  him  from  1785  to  1798;  though  the  second 
resolution  is  supposed  now  to  have  pledged  the  Houses  of  Par- 
liament, and  the  King's  answer,  delivered  by  me,  to  have  pledged 
the  executive  power  to  some  ulterior  measure. 

^'  I  do  not  know  whether  you  are  to  have  another  bout  with 
Pitt  on  this  business,  nor  when  the  business  comes  on  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  By  what  you  say,  I  suppose  not  very  soon; 
but  before  it  does,  I  wish  you  would  show  young  one^  this  letter, 
as  it  may  be  of  use  to  him. 

"Yours,  ever  affectionately, 

"C.  J.  F. 
"St.  Ann's  Hill,  Tuesday.'^ 

^  Lord  Holland. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  337 

*We  now  return  to  the  general  position  of  the  Ministry.  The 
letters  from  IMr.  Grrenville  to  Mr.  Fox  will  have  shown  the  reader 
that  serious  differences  existed  between  Mr,  Fox  and  Lord  Shel- 
burne ;  that  those  differences  were  not  differences  of  opinion  which 
time  may  efface,  or  further  reflection  reconcile,  or  more  ample  dis- 
cussion close;  but  discords  arising  from  want  of  confidence  between 
man  and  man;  from  concealment  on  the  part  of  Lord  Shelburne 
towards  his  colleague,  and  a  natural  resentment  of  such  distrust 
on  the  part  of  Blr.  Fox. 

The  course  of  events  is  related  in  General  Fitzpatrick's  Journal.* 

"Sunday,  June  23,  1782. — Lord  Rockingham,  whose  health 
declined  since  his  coming  into  ojSice,  was  this  day  taken  ill. 

"He  died  on  Monday,  July  1. 

"  Previous  to  this  misfortune,  the  dissensions  in  the  Cabinet  had 
risen  to  such  a  height,  that  on  Sunday  Charles  Fox  had  notified 
to  the  rest  of  the  Ministers  his  resolution  to  resign,  though  pro- 
bably Lord  Rockingham's  recovery  would  have  maintained  the 
weight  of  the  Whig  party.  His  resolution  to  resign  was  founded 
upon  his  having  been  outvoted  in  Cabinet,  upon  the  question  of 
acceding  unconditionally  to  the  independence  of  America. 

"On  Tuesday,  the  day  after  Lord  Rockingham's  death.  Lord 
Shelburne  announced  to  the  other  Ministers  that  his  Majesty  had 
written  to  him  to  desire  he  would  accept  the  Treasury,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  decline  it,  though  he 
wished  rather  it  should  have  been  given  to  a  friend  of  Lord 
Rockingham.  The  Whig  party  in  the  Cabinet  were  decidedly  of 
opinion  that  the  Duke  of  Portland,  or  some  one  of  Lord  Rocking- 
ham's known  friends,  ought  to  succeed  him.  Lord  Shelburne, 
finding  them  so  averse  to  his  appointment,  begged  nothing  might 
be  resolved  on  that  day,  and  undertook  to  endeavor  to  dissuade 
the  King,  thongli  he  feared  he  shoidd  not  he  successful.  Lord  John 
Cavendish  resolved  not  to  continue  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  C.  Fox  was  equally  determined  to  resign  the  seals;  the  Duke 
of  Richmond  was  strenuously  of  opinion  to  continue,  though  he 
declared  he  would  not  do  so,  unless  the  rest  of  Lord  Rockingham's 
friends  did  the  same.  Lord  Keppel  seemed  doubtful,  and  General 
VOL.  I. — 29 


338  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

Conway  strong  for  continuing,  thougli  he  thought  the  appointment 
of  the  Duke  of  Portland  would  have  been  more  proper.  Most  of 
the  Whigs  out  of  office  were  of  opinion  to  resist  the  appointment 
of  Lord  Shelburue ;  those  who  held  offices  for  the  most  part  seemed 
to  hesitate,  probably  influenced  by  their  situations. 

"On  Wednesday,  C.  Fox  told  the  King  he  considered  it  as  his 
duty  to  inform  him  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  only  means  of  secur- 
ing the  support  of  those  whom  he  believed  to  be  the  firmest  friends 
to  his  Majesty's  Government,  was  to  appoint  some  person  to  suc- 
ceed Lord  Rockingham^  in  whom  that  description  of  persons  could 
place  their  confidence.  The  King  answered,  that  when  he  had 
changed  his  Ministry,  it  was  his  intention  to  have  given  the  Trea- 
sury to  Lord  Shelburne,  who  had  declined  it  in  favor  of  Lord 
JRockingham,  and  that,  consequently,  upon  his  death,  it  now 
seemed  naturally  to  devolve  upon  Lord  Shelburne.  C.  Fox 
replied  that  he  did  not  consider  Lord  Shelburne  as  a  person  who 
would  answer  the  description  he  had  before  given, 

"The  Duke  of  Richmond  continued  strenuous  against  resigning, 
and  soon  appeared  doubtful  whether  he  should  himself  do  so, 
though  the  rest  of  his  friends  might.  He  so  far  prevailed  on  C. 
Fox  as  to  induce  him  to  consent  to  remain  (although  he  declared 
he  should  do  it  with  reluctance)  upon  condition  that  Lord  J. 
Cavendish  would  be  Secretary  of  State.  Lord  John,  however, 
continued  immovable,  and  on  Thursday  Charles  Fox  resigned  the 
seals  into  his  Majesty's  hands,  telling  him  that  he  conceived  the 
appointment  of  Lord  Shelburne  to  be  a  departure  from  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  they  had  come  into  office,  and  that  it  would 
tend  to  promote  that  disunion  which  he  had  ever  considered  as  the 
misfortune  of  his  Majesty's  reign,  by  creating  distrust  and  dis- 
satisfaction amongst  that  description  of  men  whom  he  believed  to 
be  the  best  friends  to  his  Majesty's  family,  and  to  the  interests  of 
the  public.  The  King  expressed  some  surprise,  and  wished  him 
^to  take  time  to  consider. 

"  The  Prince  of  Wales  dined  with  Mr.  Fox  on  the  day  of  his 
resignation,  and  expressed  much  kindness  towards  him,  assuring 
him  that  he  should  ever  consider  Lord  Rockingham's  friends  as 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  339 

the  persons  the  most  to  be  depended  upon,  and  as  the  best  friends 
of  the  country. 

"  The  Duke  of  Richmond  was  indefatigable  in  persuading  as 
many  of  the  Whigs  as  possible  to  remain  in  office,  and  support 
Administration  till  they  departed  from  the  principles  they  pro- 
fessed, though  Lord  Shelburne  had  already  done  it  in  twenty 
instances. 

"  During  the  short  Administration  of  Lord  Rockingham,  there 
were  sufficient  proofs  of  Lord  Shelburne's  intentions  of  acting  in 
conjunction  with  the  King  against  the  Whigs,  whom  he  had  been 
obliged  by  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  cry  of  the  nation  to 
admit  into  his  councils.  This  the  Duke  of  Richmond  could  not 
be  ignorant  of,  which  leaves  his  conduct  without  defence.  Lord 
Keppel  continued  in  office ;  but  it  was  generally  understood  that, 
he  would  do  so  only  to  the  close  of  the  campaign.^' 

[On  the  9th  of  July,  Mr.  Fox  explained  the  reasons  of  his 
resignation  in  the  House  of  Commons.  His  speeches  on  the 
occasion  seem  well  reported.  But  in  Mr.  Adam's  Journal  there 
are  some  particulars  related,  which  are  omitted  in  the  Parlia- 
mentary Debates.  At  a  Cabinet  held  at  the  Duke  of  Grafton's, 
Mr.  Fox  was  outvoted  on  a  point  of  material  importance,  the 
nature  of  which  he  could  not  at  that  time  explain  fully  to  the 
House,  though  it  was  understood  to  relate  to  the  negotiation  for 
peace  he  was  then  carrying  on  at  Paris.  On  losing  this  question, 
he  declared  to  General  Conway  his  intention  to  resign,  but  did  not 
mention  it  to  his  other  colleagues,  lest  it  should  be  thought  he  was 
acting  from  passion.  On  the  Sunday  following,  he  called  another 
Cabinet  at  his  own  house,  and  submitted  the  matter  to  them  again. 
He  was  outvoted  a  second  time,  on  which  he  announced  his  deter- 
mination to  resign;  but  suspended  the  execution  of  it,  lest  it 
should  agitate  Lord  Rockingham,  who  was  dying,  Mr.  Adam 
adds,  what  must  have  confirmed  him  in  his  resolution,  that  in 
answer  to  an  application  he  had  made  to  the  King  for  additional 
powers  to  ISlr.  Grenville,  whom  he  had  employed  at  Paris,  his 
Majesty  replied,  that  "  he  thought  it  unnecessary  to  say  anything 
to  Mr.  Grenville  till  Lord  Shelburne  heard  from  Mr.  Oswald  what 


340  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  33. 

the  prospects  were."  This  was  told  to  Mr.  Adam  by  Lord  Mait- 
land,  to  whom  Mr.  Fox  had  shown  the  King's  letter.] 

[There  prevailed,  also,  a  material  difference  of  opinion  between 
Mr.  Fox  and  Lord  Shelburne,  as  to  the  interpretation  of  a  minute 
of  Cabinet,  on  which  instructions  had  been  sent  to  our  diplomatic 
agents  both  in  France  and  America.  The  words  of  the  minute 
gave  authority  to  ''  Mr.  Grenville  to  propose  the  independency  of 
America  in  the  first  instance,  instead  of  making  it  a  condition  of 
a  general  treaty."  Mr.  Fox  maintained  that  these  words  contained 
a  complete,  final,  and  absolute  recognition  of  American  inde- 
pendence. Lord  Shelburne  contended  that  the  recognition  was 
meant  to  be  only  conditional,  depending  on  the  conclusion  of  a 
general  treaty  of  peace,  and,  if  peace  was  not  made,  that  England 
and  America  would  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  each  other  as 
before  the  negotiation  was  entered  on.  Suspicious  of  some  lurking 
design  still  entertained  of  reducing  the  colonies  to  their  former 
dependence,  Mr.  Fox  was  alarmed  at  this  interpretation  of  words 
which  he  had  endeavored  to  make  as  clear  and  explicit  as  possible, 
and  considered  it  as  laying  the  ground  for  such  an  attempt  in  case 
France  and  Spain  could  not  be  brought  to  reasonable  terms.] 

We  may  now  refer  to  Horace  Walpole's  account  of  the  trans- 
action. 

"  Lord  Kockingham  had  been  unhealthy  from  his  childhood. 
Ill  health,  and  a  frame  most  nervous,  and  without  vigor,  ought  to 
have  checked  his  vanity  of  desiring  to  be  Prime  Minister,  for  it 
was  vanity  rather  than  ambition.  When  he  obtained  his  post  this 
second  time,  he  was  much  more  debilitated.  His  physicians  were 
aware  that  the  fatigue  of  business  would  soon  destroy  him — and 
it  did.  In  the  last  days  of  June,  it  was  known  that  he  was  on 
the  point  of  death,  and  on  July  1  he  expired,  calmly,  and  per- 
fectly in  his  senses."  "  The  King  showed  his  aversion  to  Lord 
Rockingham  so  indecently  and  unfeelingly,  that,  though  he  had 
accepted  him  for  his  Minister,  he  did  not  once  send  to  inquire  how 
the  Marquis  did,  when  he  was  dying." 

A  short  recapitulation  of  the  events  of  Lord  Rockingham's  life 
follows;  and  then  Walpole  resumes :  "  It  was  puerile,  though  not 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES   FOX.  341 

strange  want  of  policy  in  Lord  Rockingliam^s  friends,  not  to  have 
seized  the  opportunity  of  his  lordship's  approaching  dissolution, 
to  take  measures  for  naming  his  successor.  He  died  before  there 
was  the  least  guess  in  the  public  who  it  would  be.  This  looked 
as  if  they  thought  themselves  unprovided  with  any  man  fit  for  so 
arduous  a  charge.  Lord  John  Cavendish  seemed  so  little  prepared 
for  the  emergency,  that  he  declared  in  private  that  now  Lord 
Rockingham  was  gone  he  cared  no  more  about  politics.  This  was 
his  first  sensation.  His  next,  and  which,  though  not  uppermost 
on  the  loss  of  Lord  Kockingham,  was  nearest  to  his  heart,  was 
that  the  house  of  Cavendish  ought  to  have  the  exclusive  right  of 
naming  a  Prime  Minister.^  Not  that  the  honor  of  enjoying  such 
exclusive  nomination  was  all  that  flattered  Lord  John's  vanity. 
He  could  not  help  looking  a  little  in  that  nomination  to  the 
tractability  of  the  person  he  should  name.  Disdaining  ambition 
in  his  own  person,  Lord  John  did  not  dislike  to  govern  the  Prime 
Minister."^ 

"  Of  the  Rockingham  faction,  there  were  but  two  persons  who 
could  pretend  any  expectation  of  succeeding  .the  Marquis:  these 
were  the  Duke  of  Richmond  and  Charles  Fox.  The  marvellous 
abilities  of  the  second  excluded  all  competition  in  that  respect. 
Every  other  consideration  was  against  him.  The  King's  aversion, 
his  own  desperate  fortune,  disreputation  with  the  public ;  nor  had 
he  been,  till  of  late,  at  all  connected  with  that  faction.^  The 
prudery  of  Lord  John's  virtue,  that  had  excommunicated  Wilkes, 
had  long  distasted  Fox.  The  present  emergence  endeared  him  to 
Lord  John.  Yet  Fox  was  of  too  superior  abilities,  and  too  apt  to 
think  and  act  for  himself,  to  present  a  tame  candidate  to  one  so 
fond  of  dictating  as  Lord  John.*     He  entered  into  the  strictest 

'  This  is  very  unlike  Lord  John. — G.  (Grey.) 

2  I  knew  Lord  John,  and  nothing  can  be  more  inconsistent  than  this 
appears  to  me  to  be  with  his  real  character. — G. 

^  All  this  appears  to  me  to  have  proceeded  from  a  very  false  view  of  the 
state  of  things  at  the  time. — G. 

*  Lord  John  fond  of  dictating  !  !  !     Fox,  Lord  John's  instrument  !  !  ! 
— G. 

29^ 


342  .CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

•union  with  Fox,  but  had  the  address  to  make  him  his  instrument, 
not  his  nominee."^  ''The  former  was  not  only  the  first  of  that 
faction  in  rank  and  abilities,  but  ought  long  before  to  have  had 
the  pre-eminence  of  Lord  Rockingham.  Impressed  with  the 
meanest  opinion  of  Lord  Rockingham's  talents  and  firmness,  which 
I  frequently  ridiculed  to  the  Duke,  I  had  more  than  once  pressed 
him  to  assume  the  command  of  the  party,  and  had  represented  the 
impropriety  of  such  parliamentary  abilities,  spirit,  and  activity 
as  his  G-race's  acting  in  subordination  to  an  almost  mute.  Yet 
such  was  the  Duke's  sacred  respect  to  friendship,  that  he  would 
never  hear  of  any  competition  with  Lord  Rockingham." 

"  When  the  Marquis  was  out  of  the  question,  confidence  in 
himself,  justice,  and  perhaps  my  former  suggestions,  must  have 
whispered  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond  that  the  vacant  place  was  due 
to  him.  I  had  reason  afterwards  to  believe  that  he  at  least  ex- 
pected that  the  Cavendishes,  his  dear  friends,  would  think  of  no 
other  man;  yet,  at  that  time,  he  gave  not  the  slightest  indication 
of  such  a  wish.  Lord  John  took  care  not  to  inspire  him  with  it, 
nor  did  it  seem  to  occur  even  to  Burke,  though  as  he,  with  all  his 
ungovernable  fancy  and  want  of  judgment,  had  a  great  ascendant 
over  the  Duke,  as  well  as  over  Charles  Fox,  he  might  have  ex- 
pected much  weight  under  the  Duke's  Administration.'^ 

''  Objections  no  doubt  there  were.  The  King's  aversion  to  the 
Duke  was  not  less  known  than  to  Charles  Fox.  The  Duke,  with 
a  thousand  virtues,  was  exccedwgli/  u7i2)opular  ;  but  these  were 
not  what  operated  on  Lord  John,  at  least,  not  the  first.  But  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  though  a  warm  friend,  was  far  from  being 
always  a  tractable  one.  He  was  apt  to  have  speculative  visions, 
not  suited  to  practice,  and  was  particularly  romantic  upon  the 
article  of  parliamentary  representation,  even  beyond  the  ideas  of 
the  associations."    "With  the  Yorkshire  Associations  Lord  Rock- 

^  [These  i-emarks  have  been  retained  as  parts  of  Mr.  Walpole's  narra- 
tive, though  the  character  he  gives  and  the  views  he  attributes  to  Lord 
John  Cavendish  had  no  existence  but  in  his  own  imagination.  From  old 
family  jealousies  and  differences  he  had  a  rooted  dislike  of  the  Cavendish 
family,  and  more  particularly  of  Lord  John,] 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  343 

ingham  had  been,  and  Lord  John  Cavendish  was,  at  the  most  open 
enmity/^     '^But  when  Lord  John  recurred  to  his  first  principles, 
a  Cavendish  for  first  Minister,  and  a  tool  ductile  to  himself,  his 
thoughts  did  not  wander  to  another  great  family.     In  two  days, 
the  town  heard  with  astonishment  that  the  Rockingham  faction 
set  up  for  first  Minister  the  Duke  of  Portland,  then  Lord-Lieute- 
nant of  Ireland;  a  novel  symptom,''  by  which  alone  he  was  at  all 
known.     Nobody  recollected  that  he  had  been  Lord  Chamberlain 
in  Lord  Rockingham's  first  Administration.     From  that  time  he 
had  lived  in  the  most  stately,  but  most  domestic  privacy,  often  in 
the  country,  and  latterly  in  Burlington  House,  lent  to  him  by  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  whose  sister  he  had  married,  being  in  too  great 
straits  to  have  a  house  of  his  own.     His  fortune  (though  12,000/. 
a  year  was  still  detained  from  him  by  his  mother,  the  Duchess 
Dowager)  had  been  noble  ',  but  obscure  waste,  enormous  expense  in 
elections,  in  contesting  the  counties  of  Westmoreland  and  Cumber- 
land with  Sir  James  Lowther,  in  which  the  Duke  had  received  bitter 
treatment  from  the  Crown,  and  too  much  compassion  for  an  idle 
and  worthless  younger  brother.  Lord  Edward,  to  support  whose  ex- 
travagance he  had  deeply  dipped  his  estate,  had  brought  him  into 
great  distresses,  now  increased  by  the  expense  of  his  Vice-royalty, 
which  he  did  not  enjoy  long  enough  to  indemnify  himself.     In 
other  respects  his  character  was  unimpeached;  but  he  had  never 
attempted   to   show   any   parliamentary   abilities,   nor    had    the 
credit  of  possessing  any.     Nor  did  it  redound  to  the  honor  of  his 
faction,  that  in  such  momentous  times  they  could  furnish  their 
country  with  nothing  but  a  succession  of  mutes." 

"Still,  Lord  John's  arrogant  modesty  was  received  as  law  by  his 
faction,  and  Lord  Shelburne  was  desired  by  the  voice  of  the  party 
to  acquaint  his  Majesty  that  the  Whigs  recommended  the  Duke 
of  Portland  to  his  Majesty,  to  succeed  Lord  Rockingham.  Lord 
Shelburne  accepted  the  mission,  and,  returning,  reported  to  the 
delegates  that  his  Majesty  had  been  pleased  to  appoint  himself 
First  Lord  of  fJie  Treamry.^^ 

'  Qiiery,  station? 


344  CORRESPONDENCE   OP  [^TAT.  33. 

"Such  an  affront  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Cavendishes  was  re- 
ceived with  proper  spirit.  The  signal  of  resignation  was  fired  by 
Charles  Fox,  who  instantly  carried  the  seals  to  St.  James's,  declar- 
ing that  the  day  before  the  death  of  Lord  Rockingham  he  had 
notified  his  intention  of  resigning  ;  unable  to  endure  the  treach- 
eries of  Shelburne,  and  his  interference  in  his  (Fox's)  province. 
Lord  John  as  immediately  announced  his  own  retreat,  and  no 
doubt  expected  to  be  followed  by  all  his  connection ;  but  he  was  dis- 
appointed, as  he  had  been  when  his  brother  had  been  disgraced  in 
1763.  He  now  made  but  few  martyrs.  Few  saw  the  propriety 
or  expedience  of  the  Duke  of  Portland  being  Minister.  The  tem- 
perate did  see  the  mischief  of  disunion  in  the  party,  and  appre- 
hended that  it  would  lead  to  a  restoration  of  the  old  Ministry,  and 
consequently  to  a  revival  of  the  American  War.  The  King  no 
doubt  exulted  in  having  defeated  a  party  that  had  often  thwarted 
his  views,  and  had  so  lately  compelled  him  to  receive  them  on 
their  own  terms." 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Duke  of  Richmond  expected, 
naturally  enough,  that  he  should  be  named  by  Lord  Rockingham's 
friends  as  his  successor  in  office,  and  in  party ;  and  there  can  be,  I 
think,  as  little,  that  his  chagrin  at  not  being  so  swayed  his  subse- 
quent conduct.  However,  this  neglect  of  him,  on  their  part, 
whether  just  or  unjust,  politic  or  impolitic,  may,  even  from  Wal- 
pole's  own  statement,  be  accounted  for,  without  ascribing  all  the 
selfishness  and  design  to  Lord  John  Cavendish,  which  his  sneers 
would  insinuate  against  him.  Mr.  Burke  and  Mr.  Fox  (who  cer- 
tainly could  not  participate  in  the  feelings  imputed  to  Lord  John), 
concurred  with  him  in  considering  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  ap- 
pointment to  the  Treasury,  or  adoption  as  head  of  the  party,  as 
impracticable  or  improper;  and  Walpole,  in  explaining  Lord 
John's  motives,  though  he  means  to  be  satirical,  assigns  many 
solid  reasons  against  such  a  choice ;  namely,  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond's extreme  unpopidarityj  his  intractahiliff/,  and  what  he  terms 
his  spcadative  visions,  and  romantic  and  impracticable  schemes 
about  parliamentary  reform.     These  were  doubtless  the  induce- 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  345 

ments  for  preferring  a  man  so  much  his  inferior  in  talents  and 
public  services  as  the  Duke  of  Portland.  But  that  there  was  in 
appearance  something  unreasonable  in  doing  so,  Mr.  Fox,  on 
whom  the  task  of  communicating  the  resolution  to  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  devolved,  certainly  felt.  Both  General  Fitzpatrick  and 
Mr.  Fox  himself,  have  more  than  once  acknowledged  to  me  (Lord 
Holland)  in  conversation,  that  Mr.  Fox  was  much  embarrassed  how 
to  mention  it  to  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  The  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Fox  at  last  conveyed  such  unpleasant  intelligence  was  this  : 
*^  We  must,"  said  he,  "  settle  without  delay,  whom  to  propose  as 
the  successor  of  Lord  Rockingham  ;  and  as  you  and  1  are  both 
out  of  the  question,  owing  to  the  decided  part  we  have  taken 
about  parliamentary  reform,  I  think  the  Duke  of  Portland  should 
be  the  man."  The  Duke  of  Richmond  was  too  shrewd  not  to 
know  that  Mr.  Fox  could  not  wave  the  lead  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, which  secured  him  an  equal  share  of  weight  with  the 
leader  of  a  party  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but  that  the  nomination 
of  another  peer  was  an  exclusion  of  him,  the  Duke  of  Richmond, 
from  the  first  prize  the  party  had  to  bestow.  This  might  be  a 
necessary  step,  but  it  could  not  be  pleasant  to  the  Dake  of  Rich- 
mond, and  it  accounts  for,  and  palliates,  though  it  does  not  justify, 
his  conduct  to  his  nephew  and  old  friends. — V.  H. 

Oq  Lord  Rockingham's  death,  Pitt  expressed  his  concern  to 
Mr.  Fox,  under  the  gallery,  at  the  report  that  Government  would 
break  up.  Fox  said,  "'  it  would ;  and  the  whole  system  be  re- 
vived;"  adding,  "they  look  to  you;  without  you  they  can- 
not succeed;  with  you  I  know  not  whether  they  will  or  no."  "If," 
replied  Pitt,  "they  reckon  upon  me,  they  may  find  themselves 
mistaken."  Fox,  as  he  left  the  house,  repeated  this  to  Lord 
John  Townshend,  and  Lord  Maitland  (afterwards  Lauderdale), 
and  probably  many  others ;  and  both  Townshend  and  Lauderdale 
told  it  me.  Fox  added,  "  I  believe  they  do  reckon  on  Pitt,  and  I 
believe  they  will  not  be  mistaken." — v.  H. 

"  In  the  first  moments  of  the  breach,  the  Duke  of  Richmond 
was  inclined  to  resign  with  the  Cavendishes.  He  could  not  be 
willing  to  remain  in  a  Court  to  which  he  was  unwelcome,  nor  to 


346  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

break  with  his  party,  nor  to  quit  them  for  Shelburne,  whose  intru- 
sion and  obstruction  to  Lord  Rochingliami  and  hh  friends ^  he  had 
so  lately  with  them  resented.  Whether  sensihility  to  their  prefer- 
ence of  the  Duke  of  Portland  offended  him  —  whether  they 
demanded  his  co-operation  too  imperiously,  or  whether  his  delight 
in  his  new  office  (the  Ordnance)  which  furnished  his  activity 
with  employment,  and  his  virtue  with  prospects  of  reformation, 
preponderated,  he  soon  disapproved  the  measure  of  retreat.  Burke 
and  Charles  Fox  as  inconsiderately,  and  the  Cavendishes,  though 
more  decently,  as  steadily,  condemned  the  Duke's  separation  from 
them.  Fox  being  his  Grrace's  nephew,  the  Duke  was  most 
offended  with  him.  I  was  fortunately  one  of  those  evenings  with 
the  Dake  when  Fox  came  to  expostulate  with  him.  I  would  have 
retired,  but  the  Duke  pressed  me  to  stay.  Fox  was  very  urgent, 
the  Duke  very  firm.  I  interposed,  and  told  Fox  that  though  I 
was  persuaded  no  man  in  England  was  so  fit  to  be  Minister  as 
himself,  yet  I  could  not  but  disapprove  his,  and  his  friends,  dis- 
uniting the  party,  nor  thought  they  had  sufficient  grounds  for 
breaking  with  Lord  Shelburne ;  I  intreated  both  him  and  the 
Duke  to  argue  without  passion,  and  to  remember,  that  being  such 
near  relations,  they  must  come  together  again,  and  therefore  I 
hoped  neither  would  say  what  the  other  could  never  forgive.  I 
did  prevent  any  warmth,  and  they  parted  civilly,  though  equally 
discontent  with  each  other.'^ 

"  The  paucity  of  followers  was  a  sad  lesson  to  the  resigners  of 
their  ill-digested  precipitation.  Fox  grew  sensible  of  it,  and  con- 
fessed it.  Richard  Fitzpatrick,  his  friend,  and  Secretary  of  Ire- 
land, who  seconded  the  admonitions  of  the  Cavendishes  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland  to  quit  his  viceroyalty,  as  he  did,  though  en- 
treated by  the  new  Premier,  in  the  King's  name,  to  retain  it — 
Fitzpatrick,  I  say,  though  his  sister  was  Shelburne's  wife,  chose  to 
follow  the  fortune  of  his  friend  rather  than  of  his  brother-in-law. 
Meeting  me  at  the  play,  on  his  return  from  Ireland,  he  said  to  me  : 
^  I  fear  you  disapprove  us,  and  indeed  I  do  not  know  whether  we 
have  not  been  in  the  wrong.'  I  replied  :  ^  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  I  feel 
too  much  concern  to  have  any  room  for  hlame.' 


)  ;; 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES   POX.  347 

"The  point  that  struck  most  with  the  Duke  was  his  cousin  and 
friend  Admiral  Keppel,  whom  the  zeal  of  Lord  Rockingham  and 
the  Cavendishes,  on  his  trial,  called  on  to  fulfil  his  debt  of  grati- 
tude. To  Lord  Shelburne  he  had  had  no  obligations.  To  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  the  same  as  to  the  Cavendishes.  The  Duke  did 
prevent  the  Admiral's  immediate  resignation,  but  he  declared  he 
meditated  it,  and  did  intend  it  so  much,  that  he  satisfied  the 
Cavendishes  ',  and  they,  in  their  turn,  chose  to  seem  satisfied  that 
by  maintaining  friendship  with  him  they  might  preserve  opportu- 
nities of  urging  him  to  resign.  This  dubious  conduct  of  Keppel 
led  the  Duke  to  profess  the  same  kind  of  neutral  ambiguity. 
Keppel  professed  to  retain  the  Admiralty  but  till  the  peace.  The 
Duke  the  Ordnance,  till  he  should  complete  his  reforms.  It 
would  have  been  improper  in  Keppel  to  resign  at  that  moment; 
he  had  sent  Admiral  Pigot  to  supersede  Lord  Rodney,  who  had 
just  obtained  a  great  victory.  News  had  come  of  the  Quebec 
fleet  being  taken.  Had  Keppel  retired  then,  he  would  have 
opened  new  ways  to  his  enemies  of  loading  him  with  obloquy,  and 
given  them  power  to  oppress  him." 

"General  Conway  was  not  in  the  same  difficult  situation.  He 
had  uniformly  on  all  occasions  declared  himself  of  no  party,  nor 
in  any  opposition  but  to  the  American  War.  He  had  never  en- 
gaged in  any  concert,  or  councils,  with  Lord  Rockingham;  and  if 
he  leaned  to  any  faction  by  ties,  it  was  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton, 
who  chose  him  into  Parliament,  and  who  adhered  to  Lord  Shel- 
burne, and  to  his  son-in-law  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  He  looked 
on  the  resignation  of  Fox  as  a  violence  of  faction,  which  might 
impede  the  peace  and  restore  the  old  Ministers ;  and  could  have 
no  idea  why  the  Duke  of  Portland  should  be  Minister,  or  why  any 
man  should  resign  because  he  was  not.  Still  less  did  he  think 
that  the  government  of  the  army  ought  to  be  an  instrument  of 
faction,  and,  having  long  determined  to  confine  himself  to  his  pro- 
fession, he  would  not  be  the  tool  of  intrigues.  Fox  and  Burke 
resented  his  neutrality,  and  the  latter,  particularly,  ridiculed  it  in 
a  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  though  it  was  Conway's  motion 
that  gave  the  first  majority  to  the  Opposition.      Fox  had  pro- 


348  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

nounced  a  sublime  panegyric  on  the  services  of  Conway,  whom  he 
congratulated  as  having  twice  saved  the  country  j  jQrst,  by  moving 
the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  in  1765,  and  recently,  by  moving  to 
stop  the  prosecution  of  the  American  War.  Conway  replied  [i.  e. 
to  Burke]  with  temper,  called  the  House  to  witness  how  often  he 
had  disclaimed  all  factions,  and  referred  to  the  disinterestedness  of 
his  life  for  the  purity  of  his  intentions  and  conduct.'^ 

"  But  Conway's  strongest  reason  for  remaining  in  office  was  of 
far  higher  nature  than  any  political  ties.  Negotiations  for  peace, 
both  with  France  and  America,  were  in  agitation:  was  the  con- 
sideration whether  Portland  or  Shelburne  should  be  Prime 
Minister  important  enough  to  cross  such  urgent  objects?" 

"  In  a  conversation  with  Lord  J.  Cavendish  not  long  afterwards, 
I  told  him  frankly  that  I  did  rejoice  that  Mr.  Conway  had  retained 
his  post.  He  had  pledged  himself  to  the  House  of  Commons  and 
to  the  public  that  America  was  disposed  to  make  peace  with  us : 
was  not  his  honor  then  at  stake  to  endeavor  to  realize  his  engage- 
ments?" 

Walpole  relates  at  some  length  a  curious,  and  not  very  credi- 
table proposal,  made  to  him  by  Burke,  which,  though  it  has  no 
immediate  connection  with  Mr.  Fox,  I  cannot  help  extracting,  or 
rather  abridging  from  Walpole' s  narrative.  After  Lord  J.  Caven- 
dish had  notiJSed  his  resignation,  and  within  forty-eight  hours  of 
the  time  at  which  he  was  to  deliver  up  the  seals  of  the  Exchequer, 
Burke,  who  was  only  an  acquaintance,  not  an  intimate  friend  of 
Walpole,  requested  him  to  apply  to  his  brother.  Sir  Edward  (who 
was  a  stranger  to  Burke,  and  a  warm  enemy  of  his  politics),  to 
resign  his  place  of  Clerk  of  the  Pells,  worth  7000/.  per  annum, 
in  consideration  of  the  full  yearly  value  being  secured  to  him  by 
Mr.  Burke,  and  of  the  disposal  of  a  small  place  then  in  the  younger 
Burke's  possession.  Walpole,  after  some  intercourse  and  explana- 
tion with  Burke,  and  through  his  son,  convinced  him  that  the 
proposal  (which  Walpole  terms  frantic)  was  quite  inadmissible, 
and,  though  Walpole  did  not  refuse  to  convey  it  to  Sir  Edward, 
Burke  gave  it  up.  Burke's  son  "dropped  that  his  father  had 
always  intended  to  get  the  office  of  Clerk  of  the  Pells."     This 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAJvIES    FOX.  349 

acknowledgment  draws  from  Walpole  some  severe  but  just  reflec- 
tions on  Burke's  having  omitted  that  office  in  the  great  sinecures 
abolished  by  his  bill.* 

^'  On  this  change  of  Ministry,  it  came  out  that  Lord  Shelburne 
had  obtained  a  pension  of  3100^.  for  life,  for  Colonel  Barre.  Lord 
Shelburne  had  had  the  address  to  persuade  Lord  Rockingham,  and 
he  had  had  the  folly,  with  Lord  J.  Cavendish  and  Frederick  Mon- 
tague, to  pass  that  grant.  It  was  so  offensive,  that  notice  was 
immediately  taken  of  it  in  the  House  of  Commons,  where  Barre's 
defence  was  still  more  imprudent  than  his  acceptance  of  the  grant. 
He  pleaded  having  lost  his  commission  in  the  army,  for  having 
opposed  the  Court  from  his  conscience ;  and  urged  that,  had  he 
remained  in  the  service,  he  might  by  that  time  have  been  a  gene- 
ral, and  have  had  a  regiment  or  government  equal  in  value  to  his 
pension.  The  House  accepted  that  broker-like  apology.  Lord 
North's  and  Bobinson's  pensions  had  escaped,  by  the  same  gene- 
ral timidity." 

"  Scandalous  as  Barre's  case  was,  I  think  Dunning's  still  worse. 
He  and  Barre,  the  latter  indeed  more  brutally,  had  declared,  on 
Burke's  reforming  bill,  for  taking  away  all  sinecure  patent  places, 
even  from  the  present  possessors,  though,  as  it  appeared  in  1783, 
the  lawyers  and  the  whole  of  the  House  of  Commons,  within  a 
very  few,  declared  that  no  freehold  was  or  ought  to  be  more 
sacred.  Dunning,  being  a  lawyer,  had  less  excuse  than  Barre  for 
breaking  a  law  which  he  had  himself  co-operated  in  making.  Par- 
liament had  voted  abolishment  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  yet, 
besides  the  peerage.  Dunning,  by  Lord  Shelburne's  interest,  had 

'  [Such  is  the  account  of  the  strange  proposal,  given  by  Walpole,  in  his 
Journal,  and  faithfully  abridged  by  Lord  Holland;  but  from  an  original 
letter  of  the  younger  Burke,  which  Walpole  has  left  among  his  papers,  it 
appears  that  it  was  the  son,  and  not  the  father,  for  whom  the  place  was 
destined,  in  case  Sir  Edward  Walpole  had  been  prevailed  on  to  resign  it. 
"Young  Bui'ke  told  me,"  says  Walpole,  "  his  father  always  intended  to  get 
him  the  place  of  Clerk  of  Pells ;  therefore  it  was  omitted  in  the  new  Bill 
(i.  c,  Burke's  second  Reform  Bill)."  "My  father  always  intended  to  get 
this  for  me;  therefore  the  Clerk  of  Pells  omitted ;  you  won't  mention  this."] 

VOL.  I. — 30 


350  CORRESPONDENCE    OP  [^TAT.  33. 

obtained  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster,  with  a  pension  of  4000^.  a  year 
for  life.  It  has  been  not  uncustomary  to  give  pensions  to  eminent 
lawyers  who  accept  great  offices,  to  indemnify  them  for  losing  the 
gains  of  their  profession — but  why  the  abolished  Duchy?  Was 
it  not  wanton  insolence  ?  Did  he  not  seem,  the  moment  he  became 
a  courtier,  to  have  satisfaction  in  laughing  at  his  own  act  of  patriot- 
ism?" 

^^This  effrontery  of  Shelburne,  Barre,  and  Dunning,  and  the 
rapacious  profligacy*  of  the  two  latter,  was  still  more  cruelly  con- 
trasted at  the  end  of  the  year.  Shelburne,  pretending  to  pursue 
reformation,  struck  off  a  parcel  of  small  offices  and  pensions,  that 
had  been  bestowed  on  old  servants  and  dependents,  now  grown 
old,  and  incapable  of  getting  their  bread;  yet  Dunning's  and 
Barre's  pensions  perhaps  wasted  more  public  money  than  the 
salaries  of  fifty  reduced  persons  would  discharge.  The  whole 
scene  of  reformation  was  a  mummery  that  at  once  insulted  the 
nation,  virtue,  and  charity,  and  enriched  only  the  principal 
reformers." 

"  The  Rockingham  party,  in  a  (cabinet)  council  of  nine,  had 
proposed  to  declare  America  independent,  previously  to  any  treaty. 
Shelburne  objected,  and  they  were  divided  four  and  four.  Con- 
way turned  the  question  in  favor  of  the  negative,  by  representing 
that  the  acknowledgment  of  independence  might  be  a  leading 
argument  for  their  making  peace  with  us;  but  should  they  refuse 
peace,  should  we  not  weaken  our  right  of  warring  on  them  by 
having  acknowledged  their  independence?" 

In  alluding  to  these  transactions.  Lord  Shelburne,  with  some 
humor,  observed  to  Mr.  Fox,  that  "  that  innocent  many  General 
Conway,  never  perceived  that  he  had  the  casting-vote  of  the 
Cabinet."  Mr.  Fox  quoted  this  saying  of  Lord  Shelburne,  in 
proof  of  the  felicity  of  expression  which,  in  spite  of  the  incor- 
rectness of  his  language,  Lord  Shelburne  often  attained.     He 

^  Rather  hard  words  these  to  be  used  by  a  man  who  himself  enjoyed 
more  than  one  sinecure,  and  whose  relations  and  friends  (Walpoles,  Sey- 
mours, &c.)  had  so  many  thousands  of  the  public  money. — V.  H. 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  351 

added  another  instance  of  it,  wbich  marks,  at  the  same  time,  the 
state  of  the  Cabinet  in  which  thej  sat  and  disputed  together.  "It 
was  very  provoking,  I  must  own,  for  you,^'  said  Lord  Shelburne 
to  Mr.  Fox,  "  to  see  Lord  Camden  and  the  Duke  of  Grafton  come 
down,  with  their  lounging  opinions,  to  outvote  you  in  Cabi- 
net."— V.  H. 

[At  Lord  Rockingham's  death,  there  were  of  the  old  Whig, 
Newcastle,  or  Rockingham  party,  five  members  left  in  the  Cabinet, 
viz. :  Mr.  Fox,  Lord  John  Cavendish,  Lord  Keppel,  General  Con- 
way, and  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  Of  these,  Mr.  Fox  and  Lord 
John  Cavendish  resigned  immediately  on  the  appointment  of  Lord 
Shelburne  to  be  the  First  Commissioner  of  the  Treasury.  Lord  Kep- 
pel considered  himself  bound  to  remain  in  office  till  the  campaign 
was  at  an  end,  and,  in  fact,  he  did  not  resign  till  January,  1783. 
Conway,  who  affected  to  be  no  party  man,  retained  his  situation  as 
Commander-in-Chief  till  the  dismissal  of  the  Coalition  Admi- 
nistration. The  Duke  of  Richmond  not  only  continued  in  office, 
but  used  his  utmost  endeavors  to  persuade  his  friends  not  to 
resign.  His  motives  for  this  conduct  will  be  found  in  the  extracts 
from  Walpole's  journals,  and  in  the  comments  of  Lord  Holland 
annexed  to  them.  It  cannot  be  denied  that,  whatever  plausible 
reason,  or  first  excuse  there  may  have  been  for  the  preference 
given  to  the  Duke  of  Portland  over  him,  the  consequences  were 
most  injurious  to  the  Whig  party.  The  defection  of  a  man  of 
such  weight  and  abilities  as  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  induced  or 
encouraged  others  to  follow  his  example,  and  his  firmness  during 
the  memorable  contest  of  1784  is  said  to  have  prevented  Mr.  Pitt 
from  following  the  example  of  his  cousin.  Lord  Temple,  by 
resigning  in  despair.  It  was  on  that  occasion  George  III.  was 
reported  to  have  said,  "  there  was  no  man  in  his  dominions  by 
whom  he  had  been  so  much  offended,  and  no  man  to  whom  he  was 
so  much  indebted  as  the  Duke  of  Richmond."] 

Immediately,  or  almost  immediately  after  the  nomination  of 
Lord  Shelburne  to  the  Treasury,  the  following  hasty,  discursive,  and 
somewhat  disingenuous  paper  was  communicated  to  Mr.  Fox : — 

"  The  question  in  the  present  crisis  seems  to  me  to  be,  first^ 


352  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

whether  Lord  S.  is  hostilely  inclined;  that  is  to  say,  whether  he  is 
resolved  to  co-operate  with  the  scheme  of  Government  you  have 
been  so  long  opposing.  If  he  is,  is  that  system  with  his  assistance, 
and  all  such  other  aids  as  late  circumstances  may  have  added  to 
it,  strong  enough  to  stand  against  the  strength  now  in  being,  or 
soon  likely  to  exist,  which  can  be  brought  against  it?  If  it  is,  I 
see  but  two  lines;  one  to  endure  the  servitude,  and  to  take  in 
common  with  others  (since  no  better  can  be  done)  whatever  sweets 
it  may  afford;  the  other  (supposing  the  advantages  not  to  com- 
pensate the  mortifications,  disgraces,  and  uncertainty,  &c.)  is  mere 
despair — to  throw  up  the  game,  and  give  all  for  lost.  If,  on  the 
contrary,  there  is  still  stuff  sufficient,  there  is  hope  in  the  battle. 
Another  question  will  be,  whether  now  or  hereafter,  that  is  to  say, 
on  a  supposition  he  is  an  enemy,  if  the  fortress  is  not  inexpugnable, 
and  you  are  resolved  to  fight  it  out.  If  you  fight  now,  it  must  be 
by  going  out,  or  rather  your  going  out  will  be  the  immediate  and 
inevitable  consequence.  If,  hereafter,  you  must  keep  your  places 
at  all  events — let  what  will  hajJpen — things  go  on  as  they  may  (for 
turn  you  out  they  dare  not,  and  certainly  will  not),  till  next 
session.  Then  my  notion  is,  that  still  continuing  to  be  ministerSj 
you  slioulcl put  the  whole  to  issue  sturdilt/  and  violently  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  Perhaps  this  is  all  nonsense.  My  reasons  for 
thinking  it  plausible  are,  that  it  is  always  better  to  fight  on  strong 
ground — I  mean  by  that,  ground  of  power,  or  at  least  the  appear- 
ance of  power.  Secondly,  it  will  preclude  the  disadvantages  of 
putting  people  to  the  trial  of  giving  up  their  places,  by  which 
means  many  would  act  with  you  when  it  came  to  the  point,  who 
would  not  at  this  time  declare  enmity.  So  far  with  regard  to  those 
who  stand  in  suspense.  Thirdly,  with  regard  to  those  who  will 
wish  to  side  with  the  victors,  your  going  out  now  must  give  the 
appearance  of  being  beat,  which  will  be  ambiguous  while  you  con- 
tinue in.  Fourthly,  if  this  country  is  really  and  to  all  intents  a 
monarchy,  where  everything  is  decided  by  the  factious  manoeuvres 
of  the  closet,  you  must  consider  the  Parliament  as  only  a  sort  of 
auxiliary  to  give  you  the  preponderance  over  your  colleagues.  I 
do  not  know  whether  this  is  taking  the  matter  in  a  new  light.     I 


1782.]  CHAELES   JAMES   FOX.  353 

rather  suspect  it  is  the  true  one,  and  that  the  affairs  of  this  country 
must  hereafter  be  regulated  upon  it.'' 

This  paper  is  without  date  or  signature,  but  seems  to  be  in  the 
handwriting  of  Mr.  Burke.  *  It  is,  however,  so  low  in  tone,  so 
obscure  in  language,  and  so  vague  in  purpose,  as  to  be  very  unlike 
any  composition  of  Mr.  Burke.* 

The  following,  which  takes  a  similar  view  of  the  question,  and 
must  have  been  written  before  any  definitive  resolution  was  adopted, 
has  the  initials  E.  B.  annexed  to  it. 

"  The  more  I  think  of  the  matter  of  our  conversation  this  day, 
and  the  more  I  tumble  it  over  in  discourse  with  others,  the  more 
fully  I  am  convinced  of  the  utter  impossibility  of  your  acting  for 
any  length  of  time  as  a  clerk  in  Lord  Shelburne's  Administration. 
If  that  be  the  case,  the  only  question  upon  your  staying  in  will 
be,  whether  office  be  not  the  best  post  to  occupy  in  the  war  that 
must  be  between  you.  If  you  go  out  now,  I  hardly  think  much 
can  be  done  until  Parliament  meets.  That  must  be  the  seat  of 
war,  and  whether  your  being  in,  and  leaving  him  to  turn  you  out, 
may  not  be  the  best  course,  may  admit  of  a  question.  To  proceed 
in  this  way,  however,  with  a  fairness  that  would,  without  it,  give 
a  bad  or  doubtful  appearance  to  your  conduct,  I  would  not  only 
oppose,  but  propose,  and  would  state  the  Duke  of  Portland,  or 
get  a  brother  Cabinet  Councillor  to  propose  yourself.  This  is  al- 
ways the  best  course;  for  the  mere  negative  to  a  Minister  I  never 
knew  to  answer.  It  gets  no  party.  If  your  friends  will  not  act 
with  you,  all  plans  are  vain.  But  if  they  should,  and  yet  are  not 
willing  at  present  to  retire,  it  would  be  fair  to  tell  the  King  that, 
in  this  instance,  you  are  not  willing  to  throw  his  affairs  into  dis- 
order, that  you  cannot  confide  in  Shelburne,  and  that  you  remit 
the  matter  to  the  sense  of  Parliament,  which,  in  some  way,  you 
are  resolved  to  take  as  soon  as  it  meets.  This  is  the  best  trimming 
way  to  proceed  in,  in  order  to  act  openly,  and  yet  not  to  bring  on 
a  decision,  which  your  friends  are  not  ready  for.  But  none  of 
these  are  to  be  compared  to  a  unanimous  and  firm  decision  against 
the  measure,  which  must  oblige  them  either  to  renounce  it,  or  to 
form  arrangements  for  which  I  do  by  no  means  conceive  them  at 

30* 


354  COREESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

present  to  be  ready.  But  if  }^ou  do  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
of  these  things,  then  you  are  fairly  bullied,  and  may  be  obliged 
to  act  a  truckling  and  subservient  part  to  those  whom  you  neither 
love  nor  respect. 

"  Yours  ever, 

"E.  B." 

[The  remaining  letters,  though  few  in  number,  are  worth  inser- 
tion. They  corroborate  and  illustrate  Mr.  Fitzpatrick's  narra- 
tive.] 

MR.  FOX  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"  I  have  only  time  to  write  a  line  to  beg  you  to  come  to  town 
to  see  the  denouement  of  this  farce,  whether  the  title  of  it  ought 
to  be  Les  Dupes,  or  Honesty  the  icorst  Policy,  or  what  I  cannot 
tell;  but  the  last  scene  is  certainly  come. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"CHARLES  JAMES  FOX." 

MR.  FITZPATEJCK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

''July  3,  1782. 
"  Dear  Brother  : — 

^'  I  did  not  write  to  you  last  night  because  nothing  was  decided, 
neither  is  there  anything  absolutely  so  yet.  Whatever  is  right  is 
never  done,  nor  will  be,  in  this  instance,  I  am  afraid.  From  the 
first  moment  I  saw  our  heaufrlre  I  was  sure  that  everything  had 
been  settled  in  the  closet,  and  that  he  had  the  appointment  of  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury  in  his  pocket.  But  if  it  is  suffered,  there 
is  certainly  a  total  end  of  Whig  principles,  and  everything  more 
in  the  hands  of  Satan  than  ever.  Charles  is  very  decidedly  of 
this  opinion,  and  will  move  heaven  and  earth  to  resist  the  appoint- 
ment ;  but  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet  are  not  equal  to  take  that  de- 
cisive line  of  conduct,  though,  in  my  opinion,  the  House  of  Com- 
mons are  universally  against    Shelburne.     Charles  wishes  you 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  355 

would  come  to  town.  Mj  intention  was  to  have  been  at  Ampthill 
on  Friday,  and  Sunday  is  the  latest  I  can  stay,  though  I  should 
wish  to  see  this,  which  I  consider  as  the  last  stake,  decided  before 
I  go.  If  they  let  him  have  the  Treasury  in  his  hands,  it  must 
inevitably  be  over  with  them,  as  a  party,  and  with  Charles,  and 
with  the  House  of  Commons,  and  with  everything  that  is  good. 
Lord  Shelburne  has  managed  the  thing  skilfully,  and  made  a 
speech  well  adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  the  times  to-day. 
Adieu.  If  you  do  not  come  to  town  to-morrow  or  next  day,  I  will 
be  with  you  on  Saturday. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  R.  F. 

"  I  am  sure  Lady  0.  will  disapprove  of  the  sacrifice  of  every- 
thing that  is  right  to  Shelburne  House.  I  have  told  him  my 
opinions  with  great  freedom,  and  he  received  them. with  great  good- 
humor,  kindness,  and  condescension  from  so  (jreat  a  man." 

MR.  FOX  TO  MR.  FITZPATRICK. 

''Jidy  A,  1782. 
"  Dear  Dick  : — 

"  Last  night,  I  thought  everything  finally  and  rightly  settled. 
This  morning,  I  am  again  afraid.  The  Duke  of  R.  [Richmond] 
has  been  with  me,  and  says  he  thinks  Lord  S.  willing  (as  I  thought 
he  would  be)  to  give  up  the  point  of  America.  He  is  now  gone 
to  persuade  Lord  John  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  in  which,  if  he 
succeeds,  I  shall  have  a  hard  task  to  refuse,  but  am  still  of  opinion 
that  even  in  that  case  I  shall  do  it.  One  of  the  many  mischiefs 
of  all  these  negotiations  is  that,  when  it  breaks,  it  will  prevent 
such  of  our  friends  as  differ  in  opinion  with  us  upon  the  prudence 
of  the  measure  from  acting  heartily  with  us  hereafter.  I  wish  I 
could  see  you.  I  shall  be  about  all  morning.  I  did  not  think  it 
had  been  in  the  power  of  politics  to  make  me  so  miserable  as 
this  cursed  anxiety  and  suspense  does, 

"  Yours  most  affectionately." 


356  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  83. 

MR.  FITZPATRICK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

«'  July  5,  1782. 
^^  Dear  Brother  : — 

'■''  I  agree  with  you  perfectly,  that  honesty  is  the  worst  policy, 
and  always  was  of  that  opinion.  It  is  that,  however,  which 
Charles  has  had  the  magnanimity  to  adopt,  and  that  in  a  manner 
which  all  men  of  real  sense  and  spirit  admire,  though,  perhaps, 
few  will  dare  to  imitate.  The  opinions  of  the  public  stand  thus 
upon  the  question.  All  persons  who  have  any  understanding,  and 
no  office,  are  of  opinion  that  Charles  has  done  right.  All  persons 
who  have  little  understanding,  are  frightened.  And  all  persons 
who  have  offices,  with  some  very  few  brilliant  exceptions,  think 
he  has  been  hasty.  I  shall  stay  to-morrow  for  a  meeting  of  Whigs^ 
where  the  Duke  of  Richmond  means  to  endeavor  to  persuade  others 
to  keep  him  in  countenance  by  keeping  their  places.  This  will 
be  no  difficult  matter,  perhaps,  but  to  persuade  the  Whigs  out  of 
office  that  the  measure  is  right,  will  be  difficult. 

^^  I  have  been,  this  evening,  with  the  greatest  and  most  abso- 
lute Minister  in  the  world,  who  is  so  happy  that  he  cannot  conceal 
his  joy  at  being  ybrce*:/  into  his  present  situation.  He  is,  however, 
very  good-humored,  and  very  liberal  of  his  offers,  I  assure  you ; 
titles,  honors,  offices,  emoluments,  all  are  in  his  hands.  This 
world  was  made  for  Cassar. 

"  Adieu,  dear  brother ;  I  will  dine  with  you  on  Sunday,  and 
shall  proceed  the  next  morning. 

*' '  Victrix  causa  Deo  placuit  sed  victa  Catoni.' 

^^  Yours  affectionately, 

"R.  F." 

LORD  SHELBURNE  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"Shelbukne  House,  July  4,  1782. 
"  My  dear  Lord  : — 

"•'  The  loss  of  Lord  Rockingham,  among  other  consequences, 

has  occasioned  my  being  called  upon  to  succeed  him.     You  know 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES    FOX.  357 

me  enough  to  be  certain  that  it  is  not  an  event  which  suits  me  or 
mine.  In  the  situation  of  public  affairs,  I  do  not  think  myself  at 
liberty  to  decline  it,  and  hazard  the  loss  of  what  we  are  all  engaged 
in.  I  am  desirous  of  getting  my  own  Board  filled  not  merely 
with  politicians,  but  friends,  and  I  shall  be  very  happy  if  you  will 
add  to  it  the  character  of  a  relation. 

"Mr.  Fox  resigned  this  day,  on  account  of  this  appointment 
not  beino;  from  among  the  late  Lord  Rockingham's  friends.  I  do 
not  find  any  person  has  announced  a  resolution  of  the  same  sort, 
except  Lord  J.  Cavendish,  who  was  always  determined  to  retire. 
I  beg  to  be  very  affectionately  remembered  to  Lady  Ossory,  and 
am  most  truly  yours, 

"SHELBURNE." 

LORD  OSSORY'S  ANSWER. 

"  My  dear  Lord  : — 

"From  the  moment  of  the  death  of  poor  Lord  Rockingham,  T 
was  fearful  the  consequence  would  be  the  dissolution  of  the  new 
system.  I  cannot  but  truly  lament  that  it  has  happened.  I  am 
much  obliged  to  you  for  so  early  a  mark  of  your  attention  to  me, 
but  must  beg  leave  to  decline  your  obliging  offer.  I  assure  you 
it  is  not  from  any  political  motives,  not  having  had  any  concert 
with  anybody,  or  taken  any  engagement,  since  this  event.  I 
know  how  precious  your  time  is ;  therefore  I  shall  only  add,  that 
I  am, 

"  My  dear  Lord, 

"  Yours,  &c., 

"  OSSORY." 

I  have  transcribed  these  letters,  not  merely  because  they  relate 
to  persons  nearly  connected  with  my  family,  but  also  because  they 
give  a  picture  of  the  state  of  parties  and  feelings  of  individuals ; 
and  above  all,  show  the  confidence  and  friendship  which  Mr.  Fox 
inspired  in  men  of  understanding,  with  whom  he  was  in  any  way 
connected  or  intimate.  Lord  Ossory  was  a  man  of  sense,  reflec- 
tion, and  prudence,  and  not  much  liable  to  be  swayed  by  party 


358  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

feelings,  or  much  disposed  hracJiia  tendere  contra  torrentem.  He 
had  little  ambition,  though  very  desirous,  from  a  dislike  of  the 
turmoil,  and  still  more  of  the  expense  of  elections,  to  obtain  an 
English  peerage.  He  must  have  known  that  he  might  easily  have 
obtained  his  wishes,  and  without  reproach,  from  his  brother-in-law, 
if  he  had  joined  him;  but  he  (like  many  others)  felt  that  Mr. 
Fox  was  formed  to  govern  the  country,  and  could  not  bear  to  se- 
parate from  him — a  proof  of  the  ascendency  the  great  and  amiable 
qualities  of  Mr.  Fox,  in  spite  of  his  imprudences,  had  given  him 
over  calm,  dispassionate,  and  reasonable  minds,  as  well  as  over 
his  immediate  adherents. 

MR.  FITZPATRICK  TO  LORD  OSSORY. 

"Dublin  Castle,  July  15,  1782. 
"  Dear  Brother  : — 

"  I  was  not  mistaken  in  my  opinion  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's 
sentiments  upon  the  present  crisis,  and  found  that,  from  the  first 
moment  he  had  been  apprised  of  what  the  state  of  things  was  in 
England,  he  had  not  entertained  one  instant's  doubt  of  the  pro- 
priety of  immediate  resignation.  If  you  had  pursued  your  inten- 
tions of  coming  over  here,  your  alarms,  with  respect  to  Ireland, 
would  have  been  considerably  increased  by  seeing  the  effect  which 
the  Duke  of  Portland's  resignation  is  likely  to  produce.  I  assure 
you,  without  exaggeration,  that  the  difficulties  we  shall  find  in 
quieting  the  minds  of  the  public,  and  moderating  the  violence 
which  seems  ready  to  burst  forth  against  the  new  system,  are 
hardly  to  be  conceived  but  by  people  on  the  spot.  The  Duke  of 
Portland's  intentions,  though  not  declared,  are  so  strongly  sus- 
pected, that  they  are  ripe  for  proceeding  all  lengths  against  a 
Ministry  in  whom  they  have  no  confidence,  and  against  which 
their  prejudices  are  strengthened  by  the  supposed  intention  of 
resigning  in  the  Duke  of  Portland.  The  recruiting  for  the  navy, 
which  had  begun  with  the  fairest  prospect  of  success,  is  likely  to 
be  much  retarded  by  the  prevailing  jealousies;  there  seems  even 
a  disinclination  to  suffer  the  bill  for  the  offer  of  5000  land  forces 
to  pass.     In  short,  the  appearances  are  such  that  I  really  think 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  359 

tlie  future  prospects  in  this  country  are  to  the  last  degree  alarm- 
ing. Lord  Shelburne's  unpopularity  in  Ireland  is  really  something 
hardly  to  be  credited,  particularly  in  the  north  (where  he  fancies 
himself  a  great  favorite),  upon  the  score  of  American  independ- 
ence, and  the  idea  of  that  being  the  cause  of  the  rupture  does  not 
a  little  add  to  the  general  ferment.  Our  task  under  these  circum- 
stances is  full  of  difficulty.  The  measure  of  resignation  implies 
such  want  of  confidence,  that  it  is  but  with  a  bad  grace  we  can 
recommend  it  to  the  public.  I  had  fifty  people  before  the  meeting 
of  the  House  this  morning  with  me,  all  inquiring  what  were  the 
wishes  of  Grovernment  at  the  present  moment.  My  answer  was 
that  all  our  wishes  were  to  conclude  the  business  of  the  session, 
quietly  and  expeditiously,  and  I  hope  we  shall  efiect  this.  But 
how  our  successors  will  conduct  the  Government  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
conceive.  I  believe  I  may  say,  and  really  without  lyuffing,  that 
the  Duke  of  Portland's  Administration  had  so  completely  concili- 
ated the  minds  of  the  people  at  large  to  them,  and  had  inspired 
such  a  degree  of  confidence  in  the  public,  that  the  change  of 
Government,  and  especially  by  proceeding  from  the  exaltation  of 
a  man  of  whom  a  general  distrust  and  ill  opinion  prevails,  will 
make  this  country  ten  times  more  difficult  to  govern  than  ever. 

"The  Duke  is  now  employed  in  writing  his  letter  to  Lord  Shel- 
burne.  He  has  written  to  the  Duke  of  Kichmond  letters,  which,  if 
he  has  any  feeling,  must,  I  think,  cut  him  severely.  I  have  no  letter 
from  Charles,  but  accounts  say  that  he  never  distinguished  him- 
self more  than  on  Tuesday.  He  is  here  held  in  a  degree  of  the 
highest  estimation  from  his  step  on  this  occasion,  as  he  must  be 
in  England  when  his  conduct  is  understood.  I  will  write  again 
when  I  have  time.  I  shall  certainly  keep  my  resolution  faithfully, 
of  checking  all  mischief.  Indeed,  the  country  is  so  much  more 
ripe  for  it  than  I  could  have  imagined,  that  no  excesses  will  sur- 
prise me. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"R.  F. 

"P.  S.   The   state  of  things  will,  I  fancy,  smooth  our  par- 


360  CORKESPONDENCE    OF  [^TAT.  33. 

liamentary  business;  it  is  out  of  doors  that  the  danger  is  to  be 
apprehended." 

*The  resignation  of  Mr.  Fox,  upon  Lord  Shelburne's  succeed- 
ing to  Lord  Rockingham  as  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  seems  to 
have  been  almost  inevitable.  After  the  secret  negotiation  of  Mr. 
Oswald,  at  Paris,  Mr.  Fox  could  not  have  conducted  the  negotia- 
tions for  peace  with  that  reliance  on  his  chief  which  was  necessary 
in  so  difficult  a  matter.  Putting  resentment  out  of  the  question, 
the  responsibility  imposed  on  the  Secretary  of  State  required  a 
cordiality  of  co-operation  which  Mr.  Fox  could  never  have  ex- 
pected from  Lord  Shelburne. 

But,  conceding  this  point,  it  must  be  owned  that,  whether  Mr. 
Burke  or  Lord  J.  Cavendish  were  the  adviser,  the  field  of  battle 
was  the  worst  that  could  be  chosen.  Lord  Shelburne,  the  friend 
and  colleague  of  Lord  Chatham,  a  Secretary  of  State  under  Lord 
Rockingham,  a  man  of  varied  acquirements,  and  undoubted  abili- 
ties, was,  personally,  far  superior  to  the  Duke  of  Portland  as  a 
candidate  for  the  office  of  Prime  Minister.  The  King,  therefore, 
had  a  great  advantage  over  Mr.  Fox  in  the  apparent  ground  of  the 
quarrel. 

Had  Mr.  Fox  declared  that  he  would  not  serve  under  any  one ; 
or,  at  all  events,  not  under  Lord  Shelburne,  who  had  withheld 
from  him  knowledge  indispensable  to  his  performance  of  the 
duties  of  Secretary  of  State,  he  would  have  stood  on  firm  ground. 
The  choice  of  a  Prime  Minister  against  the  choice  of  the  Crown, 
and  that  in  the  person  of  a  man  whose  rank  and  fair  character 
were  his  only  recommendations,  appeared  to  the  public  an  unwar- 
rantable pretension,  inspired  by  narrow  jealousies  and  aristocratic 
prejudices;  nor  must  it  be  overlooked,  that,  technically  speaking, 
the  conduct  of  Lord  Shelburne  in  the  negotiation,  had  in  one  part 
not  been  without  excuse.  Mr.  Grenville  had,  properly  speaking, 
no  more  right  to  negotiate  with  Franklin,  than  Mr.  Oswald  had  to 
negotiate  with  Yergennes. 

Accordingly,  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  General  Conway,  and 
Lord  Keppel,  remained  in  office.     The  cause  of  reform  and  re- 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  861 

trenchment  sustained  a  notable  damage,  and  Mr.  Fox  did  not 
obtain  that  justice  to  which  he  was  entitled. 

Lord  Holland's  reflections  on  Mr.  Fox's  public  conduct  in  Lord 
Rockingham's  Administration,  and  his  resignation  of  the  Seals  in 
1782,  will  form  an  appropriate  termination  to  the  present  volume. 
It  will  be  seen  that,  while  Lord  Holland  justifies  the  resignation, 
he  says  nothing  to  justify  the  preference  given  to  the  Duke  of 
Portland  over  Lord  Shelburne,  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  and,  above 
all,  over  his  uncle's  own  superior  claims  to  the  succession  of  Lord 
Rockingham.* 

The  first  endeavors  of  Mr.  Fox,  on  the  accession  of  Lord  Rock- 
ingham's Administration,  were  directed  to  an  overture  for  peace, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  pacific  system  founded  on  a  balance  of 
power  in  Europe,  and  for  that  purpose  was  recommended  the 
mission,  first  of  Mr.  Oswald,  and  then  of  Mr.  Grenville,  to  Paris, 
to  negotiate  on  the  basis  of  the  peace,  1763,  and  the  concession  of 
American  independence;  and,  early  in  May,  it  was  suggested  that 
the  independence  of  America  should  be  conceded  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  not  made  a  condition  of  the  treaty.  It  was  obvious 
that  the  King,  distant  and  haughty  in  all  his  communications  with 
Mr.  Fox,  was  averse  to  such  a  policy,  whenever  suggested  by  him ; 
and  it  was  not  long  ere  symptoms  of  a  different  policy,  if  not  of 
a  secret  understanding  with  the  King,  appeared  in  another  quar- 
ter, namely.  Lord  Shelburne.  Both  the  plans  of  detaching  Holland 
from  the  confederacy,  and  of  employing  the  secret  good  ofiices  of 
Prussia  for  that  purpose,  and  the  still  more  important  scheme  of 
propitiating  the  United  States,  through  Franklin,  by  an  immediate 
and  frank  recognition  of  their  independence,  were  by  some  means 
or  other  bafHed  and  postponed,  and  Mr.  Fox  and  his  immediate 
friends  very  early  surmised  that  it  was  the  unwillingness,  the 
incoherence,  or  possibly  the  cabals  of  his  colleagues  and  of  the 
Court,  which  threw  impediments  in  his  way.  Soon  afterwards, 
private  and  confidential  letters  in  May,  confirmed  yet  more 
strongly  in  those  of  June,  came  from  Mr.  Grenville  at  Paris, 
which  contained  more  than  conjectures — actual  proof,  of  under- 
hand negotiations  carried  on  through  Mr.  Oswald  and  Lord  Shel- 
VOL.  I.— 31 


362  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [JETAT.  33. 

burne  with  Franklin,  by  which  the  former  was  encouraged  bj  the 
prospect  of  some  new  concessions,  and  especially  of  Canada,  to 
hold  aloof  from  the  overtures  made  to  him  through  Mr.  Grenville, 
and  the  French  Government  was  taught  to  expect  other  and  more 
advantageous  terms  than  had  hitherto  been  offered  them,  from  the 
state  of  disunion  which  they  ascertained  to  subsist  in  the  English 
Cabinet.  Mr.  Fox,  notwithstanding  Lord  Rockingham's  infirm 
state  of  health,  had  before  his  death  expressed  in  Cabinet  his 
uneasiness  and  dissatisfaction  at  the  shape  the  negotiation  was 
assuming;  he  had  often  hinted,  in  pretty  plain  terms,  at  the  cause 
of  the  impediments  in  the  work  of  peace.  He  more  than  once 
intimated  his  inclination  to  resign,  unless  some  steps  were  taken 
to  give  greater  authority  to  the  negotiation  he  was  conducting  ^ 
and  on  the  Sunday  before  Lord  Rockingham's  death  he  actually 
tendered  his  resignation,  being  outvoted  in  the  Cabinet  on  the 
question  of  acceding  unconditionally  to  American  independence. 
His  complaints,  regarding  a  secret  negotiation  yet  pending,  and 
resting  upon  information  yet  more  confidential  and  secret,  rendered 
the  entire  disclosure  of  his  motives,  if  he  did  resign,  impossible 
and  unjustifiable,  and  it  was  not  till  the  death  of  Lord  Rocking- 
ham, and  the  subsequent  elevation  to  the  Premiership  of  Lord 
Shelburne,  thac  he  could  allege  public  ground  for  the  step  he 
took;  and  even  then,  the  ostensible  reason,  while  the  real  one  wa& 
suppressed,  appeared  too  personal  to  find  much  favor  with  the 
public. 

Though  he  was  thus  deprived  of  the  satisfaction  of  bringing  ta 
a  conclusion  a  war  he  had  so  successfully  opposed,  and  the  two 
countries  of  England  and  America  were  perhaps  deprived  of  all 
the  advantages  which  might  have  arisen  from  a  speedy,  frank,  and 
possibly  separate  reconciliation  between  Great  Britain  and  her 
former  subjects,  conducted  in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  good-will^ 
under  his  able  auspices,  yet  his  short  Administration  of  three 
months  sufficed  to  impress  all  European  courts  with  great  con- 
fidence in  his  abilities,  and  to  heal  for  a  season,  at  least,  another 
breach,  which,  at  the  accession  of  the  Whig  Ministry,  seemed  on 
the  eve  of  rending  Ireland  from  Great  Britain.     The  adjustment, 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  363 

in  Ireland,  of  1782,  was  not  less  the  result  of  the  confidence  which 
the  congenial  honor  and  genius  of  two  great  men,  Mr.  Fox  and 
Mr.  Grrattan,  inspired  in  each  other,  than  of  the  force  of  circum- 
stances and  the  skill  of  negotiation.  Incomplete  and  defective  as 
it  undoubtedly  was,  it  yet  rescued  the  empire  from  great  imme- 
diate danger,  and  was  the  first  step  taken  in  the  great  work  of 
placing  the  connection  of  the  two  Islands  on  the  broad  basis  of 
equality,  liberty,  and  justice.  Another  event,  but  one  for  which 
the  Ministry  could  claim  no  merit,  had  somewhat  improved  the 
prospects  of  the  country,  and  was  no  doubt  of  advantage  in  the 
negotiations  for  peace — the  victory  of  Lord  Rodney.  It  was  not, 
however,  unmixed  with  embarrassment.  That  bold  and  fortunate, 
but  vainglorious  commander,  had  recently  been  arraigned  by  the 
Whigs  in  Opposition,  and  especially  by  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Burke, 
for  his  rapine  and  cruelty  at  St.  Eustatia.  On  their  accession  to 
power,  in  consonance  with  the  opinion  they  had  expressed  of  his 
conduct,  his  recall  was  sent  out  immediately.  The  news  of  his 
splendid  victory  arrived  after  the  recall  was  sent.  But  the  Minis- 
ters virtuously  and  honestly  determined  to  persist  in  their  measure. 
They  agreed,  however,  to  reward  liberally,  and  even  lavishly,  the 
hero  of  so  great  and  seasonable  a  victory.  They  wished  to  create 
him  an  earl.  George  III.  obstinately  resisted  it;  but  whether 
from  a  reluctance  to  make  honors  too  cheap  by  an  unexpected  and 
lavish  bestowal  of  them,  or  from  not  liking  to  wash  out  any  odium 
the  Whigs  might  have  incurred  by  recalling  him,  I  cannot  con- 
jecture. ' 

The  resignation  of  Mr.  Fox  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  two 
passages  of  his  public  life  most  open  to  animadversion,  and  most 
requiring  explanation.  Everything,  therefore,  that  shows  the 
uneasy  state  of  the  Cabinet  during  Lord  Rockingham's  Ministry, 
and  the  grounds  for  the  suspicion  and  complaint  entertained  against 
the  King  and  Lord  Shelburne  (the  real  motives  o^  Mr.  Fox's 
resignation),  should  be  preserved  for  his  biographer. 

The  step  was  universally  lamented,  and  very  naturally  cen- 
sured by  many  friends  of  freedom  and  peace,  who  were  unac- 
quainted with  the  personal  character  of  Mr.  Fox  and  his  colleagues. 


364  CORRESPONDENCE    OF  [iETAT.  33. 

and  who  saw  in  it  nothing  but  a  fatal  division  in  a  body  of  men 
to  whom  they  were  looking  for  a  restoration  of  the  blessings  of 
peace,  and  the  re-establishment  of  a  virtuous  system  of  govern- 
ment at  home.     To  them  it  seemed  the  result  of  mere  personal 
jealousy  and  squabbles  for  superiority,  in  which  the  interests  of 
the  public  were  overlooked.     Some  even  of  those  who  were  better 
informed  of  the   secret   transactions   of  the  parties,   and  more 
attached  to  Mr.  Fox  than  to  Lord  Shelburne,  or  the  individuals 
who  sided  with  him,  yet  doubted  the  propriety  or  expediency  of  an 
open  rupture  on  the  appointment  of  Lord  Shelburne  to  the  Trea- 
sury, though  they  neither  approved  of  the  manner  of  that  appoint- 
ment, nor  of  the  man  who  had  been  selected  by  the  King  without 
any  consultation  with  his  colleagues.    The  Duke  of  Richmond,  who 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  was  yet  more  personally  estranged 
from  Lord  Shelburne  than  Mr.  Fox  during  Lord  Rockingham's 
life,  and  who,  it  appears  by  Mr.  Fox's  correspondence,  fully  par- 
took of  the  indignation  felt  at  Lord  Shelburne's  conduct,  was,  it 
must  be  presumed,  swayed  in  his  judgment  against  the  resigna- 
tion by  the  preference  given  by  Mr.  Fox  and  the  party  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland,  but  Burke  himself  was  averse  to  immediate 
resignation.     Fitzpatrick,  and  the  most  intimate  personal  friends  of 
Mr.  Fox,  while  they  acknowledged  it  to  be  almost  unavoidable, 
were  in  their  hearts  doubtful,  and  inclined  to  procrastinate ;  and 
although  Lord  John  Cavendish  and  the  Duke  of  Portland  urged, 
and  warmly  applauded  it,  they  were  not,  as  Horace  Walpole  false- 
ly supposes,  the  real  authors  and  causes  of  the  measure.     It  was 
Mr.   Fox's  own  resolution,  adopted  after   much   reflection,  and 
founded  on  a  general  conviction  that  be  could  not  conduct  the 
public  affairs  under  Lord  Shelburne's  Treasury  with  safety,  honor, 
or  advantage ;  and  from  resentment  at  the  duplicity  with  which 
his  negotiations  at  Paris  had  been  impeded  by  Lord  Shelburne 
through  Mr.  Oswald,  of  which  he  thought  Mr.  Grenville's  letters 
furnished  him  indubitable  evidence.     He  had  never  been  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  Lord  Shelburne.     At  his  first  entrance 
into  life,  he  must  have  been  strongly  prepossessed  against  him, 
for  his  father,  in  his  latter  years,  was  loud  and  constant  in  his 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  ,  365 

complaints  of  what  lie  termed  and  thought  (perhaps  unjustly)  the 
treachery  and  ingratitude  of  Lord  Shelburne.  During  the  whole 
of  the  American  War,  Lord  Shelburne,  though  active  and  able  in 
his  opposition  to  that  war,  carefully  and  ostentatiously  professed 
either  attachment  to  Lord  Chatham,  or  an  insulated  and  separate 
system  of  politics,  and  kept  studiously  aloof  from  all  connection 
with  the  Rockingham  party.  His  habits  were  altogether  different 
from  those  of  Mr.  Fox.  There  was  no  previous  intimacy,  much 
less  friendship,  between  them.  When  Lord  North  was  driven 
from  the  helm,  the  King  preferring  Lord  Shelburne,  as  he  had 
more  than  once  preferred  Lord  Chatham,  to  the  powerful  associa- 
tion of  the  Whig  lords,  sent  to  him,  and  he,  in  the  first  instance, 
concealed  the  substance  of  the  royal  communication  ;  and  when  he 
recommended  their  admission,  and  conceded  what  he  called  "  the 
great  prize"  of  the  Treasury  to  Lord  Rockingham,  he  took  spe- 
cial care  to  mark  that  it  was  his  advice,  and  not  the  King's  favor, 
which  placed  them  in  power.  He  then  introduced  Mr.  Dunning 
into  the  Cabinet  without  notice  or  concert.  Few  weeks  or  even 
days  elapsed  before  his  colleagues  perceived,  very  sensibly,  that 
the  small  glimmer  of  royal  countenance,  which  shone  upon  the 
Cabinet,  was  entirely  confined  to  Lord  Shelburne  and  his  personal 
supporters.  This  was  beginning  under  unfavorable  auspices.  The 
distribution  of  offices  was  not  such  as  to  allay  the  apprehensions 
of  those  who  foreboded  divisions  in  the  Council  or  conflicting  wills 
in  the  administration  of  affairs.  The  Foreign  Department  was,  in 
the  improvident  regulations  of  that  day,  divided  between  two  Sec- 
retaries of  State.  They  presided  over  their  respective  offices,  one 
of  which  embraced  the  north  and  the  other  the  south  of  Europe 
and  the  Colonies.  The  consequences  were,  that  wherever  a  diplo- 
matic agency  was  required  for  negotiation  with  joint  powers,  the 
same  man  was  furnished  with  instructions,  and  had  to  correspond 
with  two  different  principals ;  or  each  of  those  principals  employed 
respectively  a  separate  servant  in  an  affair  which  was,  or  ought  to 
have  been,  substantially  the  same.  This  circumstance  seems  to 
have  accelerated  and  imbittered  the  jealousies,  which  no  doubt 
would  sooner  or  later  have  arisen  between  Lord  Shelburne  and 

31* 


366  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [iETAT.  33. 

Mr.  Fox ;  for,  though  both  Mr.  Oswald  and  Mr.  Grenville  were 
sent  to  Paris  on  their  respective  missions — the  one  to  Franklin 
and  the  other  to  Vergennes — by  Lord  Shelburne  and  Mr.  Fox, 
with  the  express  sanction  of  the  Cabinet,  yet  the  former  (Mr. 
Oswald),  it  would  appear  by  Franklin's  correspondence,  and  Mr. 
Grenville' s,  was  the  channel  of  many  private  communications  from 
Lord  Shelburne  to  Franklin  and  from  Franklin  to  Lord  Shelburne  j 
and  the  latter  (Mr.  Grenville),  it  is  clear  from  his  own  correspond- 
ence to  Mr.  Fox,  suspected  yet  more  concealment  and  intrigue, 
and  urged  most  forcibly  the  danger  and  dishonor  of  that  double 
and  separate  negotiation.  There  was  great  mistrust  and  jealousy 
on  both  sides,  much  mystery  and  concealment  on  that  of  Lord 
Shelburne,  which  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Grenville  attributed  perhaps 
too  hastily  to  a  secret  understanding  with  the  King,  a  suspicion 
which  the  appointment  of  Lord  Shelburne  to  the  Treasury,  with- 
out consultation  or  advice,  strongly  confirmed.  Whether  there 
did  exist  any  absolute  difference  in  the  views  of  the  two  branches 
of  the  Ministry  on  the  subject  of  peace,  is  a  problem  which  pos- 
sibly the  perusal  of  all  the  papers  may  not  enable  the  reader  quite 
satisfactorily  to  solve.  But  that  Lord  Shelburne  so  far  listened 
that  he  discussed,  entertained,  and  communicated  through  Mr. 
Oswald  with  Franklin,  several  projects  of  the  latter  without  com- 
municating them  to  his  colleagues,  and  especially  that  strange  one 
of  ceding  Canada .  to  the  United  States,  is  clear  enough.  There 
had  indeed  occurred,  before  the  change  of  Ministry,  and  under 
Lord  North,  through  the  busy  interference  of  David  Hartley  and 
others,  what  Franklin  calls  a  tampering  for  a  separate  peace  ;  and 
the  notion  of  separating  in  substance,  if  not  in  form,  the  interests 
of  America  from  those  of  France,  seems  to  have  been  inherited  by 
the  Whig  Ministry  from  their  predecessors.  It  had  been,  accord- 
ing to  Hartley,  distantly  and  covertly  suggested  by  Franklin 
himself.  Franklin,  however,  represented  it,  when  it  suited  his 
purposes,  as  a  base  endeavor  to  seduce  the  Americans  to  abandon 
a  generous  friend,  and  to  sacrifice  their  feelings  of  honor  and 
gratitude  to  an  enemy.  In  the  course  of  these  preliminary  steps 
to  negotiation,  it  appeared  that  there  were  five  Commissioners  from 


1782.]  CHARLES   JAMES   FOX.  367 

America  in  Europe  empowered  to  treat  of  general  peace  when  the 
Rockingham  Administration  was  appointed ;  and  Dr.  Franklin, 
having  communicated  his  desire  of  peace  through  Lord  Chol- 
mondeley  to  Lord  Shelburne  as  early  as  the  22d  of  March,  and 
before  the  change  of  Ministry  was  known.  Lord  Shelburne  natu- 
rally enough  chose  him  as  the  channel  of  communication  to  the 
Commission,  of  which  he  (Franklin)  was  one.  Mr.  Oswald, 
besides  his  public  instructions,  received  and  delivered  private 
letters  to  him  from  Lord  Shelburne,  immediately  on  his  arrival 
at  Paris,  which  represented  him  as  "fully  apprised  of  Lord 
Shelburne's  mind."  Much  confidential  intercourse  took  place 
between  Oswald  and  Franklin ;  and  according  to  the  relation 
of  the  latter,  and  the  subsequent  suspicions  of  Mr.  Grenville 
and  Mr.  Fox,  some  projects  of  Franklin,  concerning  the  cession 
of  Canada  to  the  United  States,  had  been  entertained  by  Oswald 
and  Lord  Shelburne  before  Mr.  Grenville's  arrival  at  Paris, 
and  were  not  communicated  either  to  him  or  Mr.  Fox  till  long 
afterwards.  The  diiference  at  least  of  the  two  negotiations, 
through  Oswald  and  Grenville,  did  not  escape  the  penetration 
of  Franklin;  it  was  the  subject  of  jokes  in  society,  and  of  specu- 
lation no  doubt  in  the  Ministry.  Franklin,  though  he  preferred 
Oswald  for  his  own  purposes,  and  either  did,  or  professed,  to 
doubt  the  good  faith  of  Mr.  Grenville,  infers  directly  the  exist- 
ence of  jealousy  between  the  two  departments  in  London,  and 
accounts  for  it,  by  remarking  that  Mr.  Oswald  was  the  choice  of 
Lord  Shelburne — Grenville,  of  Mr.  Secretary  Fox.  It  is  possible 
and  not  improbable,  that  Grenville  suspected  more  conceal- 
ment, intrigue,  and  counteraction  than  really  subsisted;  but  there 
was  certainly,  neither  in  Lord  Shelburne's  way  of  transacting 
business,  which  was  always  confused  and  indistinct,  though  oc- 
casionally striking  and  decisive — nor  in  his  professions,  which 
were  always  overcharged  and  "excessive — nor  in  symptoms  per- 
ceptible elsewhere — nor  in  his  previous  or  general  character,  which 
may  be  judged  of  from  the  nicknames  of  "  The  Jesuit,'^  and  "  Ma- 
lagrida,"  whether  deserved  or  undeserved,  anything  to  disarm 
the  suspicions  which  prepossession,  situation,  and  circumstances. 


368  CORRESPONDENCE   OF  [^TAT.  33. 

attested  by  a  friend  naturally  raised  in  Mr.  Fox's  mind,  and  which 
Lord  Shelburne's  acceptance  of  the  Treasury  tended  strongly  to 
confirm.  This,  then,  was  the  true  ground  of  Mr.  Fox's  resigna- 
tion. His  future  biographer  and  his  readers  must  pronounce  if  it 
was  sufficient  to  justify  the  step,  after  duly  weighing  the  evidence. 
How  far  the  King  was  himself  cognizant  of  Lord  Shelburne's 
share  in  these  transactions,  it  is  perhaps  more  difficult  to  ascertain. 
The  points  on  which  Mr.  Oswald,  with  Lord  Shelburne's  appro- 
bation, outstepped  the  wishes  of  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet,  namely, 
in  acknowledging  the  absolute  necessity  of  peace,  the  forlorn  and 
disunited  state  of  England,  the  wish  to  court  America,  and  the 
cession  of  more  territory  to  her,  rather  than  to  France,  are  pre- 
cisely those  to  which  Greorge  III.  must  have  had,  one  should  pre- 
sume, the  greatest  repugnance.  Yet  his  original  message  to  Lord 
Shelburne,  rather  than  to  Lord  Rockingham,  his  uniform  bias  on 
every  trifling  occasion,  where  shades  of  diffisrence  could  be  dis- 
cerned, to  the  former,  and  his  final  appointment  of  him  to  the 
Treasury,  confirms  the  persuasion  then  generally  felt  in  Paris  and 
in  London,  and  strongly  entertained  by  Mr.  Fox  and  his  im- 
mediate friends,  that  the  Crown  and  Lord  Shelburne  were  acting 
in  concert  to  disunite  and  baffle  the  Cabinet  in  all  their  designs  at 
home  and  abroad.  Lord  Shelburne  always  complained  that  the 
King  had  tricked  and  deserted  him  in  1782  and  1783;  and  to 
the  best  of  my  belief,  George  III.  never  formally  retracted,  or 
even  accidentally  contradicted,  the  character,  which  in  his  familiar 
correspondence  with  Lord  North  he  had  given  to  Lord  Shelburne, 
by  the  nickname  of  "  The  Jesuit,"  at  any  period,  or  on  any  occa- 
sion subsequent  to  1783.  They  may,  and  probably  did,  act  in 
concert  together  for  a  purpose,  and  for  a  time;  but  they  seemed 
not  to  have  inspired  any  mutual  confidence,  much  less  any  friend- 
ship or  affection,  in  one  another.  It  appears,  however,  from 
Fitzpatrick's  Journal,  and  other  records  and  reports,  that  Lord 
Shelburne  was  satisfied  at  the  time  that  he  had  acquired  the  King's 
confidence,  and  that  he  (the  King)  was  entirely  in  his  hands. 
Lord  Shelburne  was  elated  thereat.  He  must  have  boasted  of  it 
to  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  for  he  used  subsequently  to  repeat  a 


1782.]  CHARLES    JAMES    FOX.  369 

remark  of  the  Duke  to  him,  with  which  he  was  much  pleased,  viz. : 
"  Ay  'j  but,  my  Lord,  you  must  recollect  that  to  be  a  Sully  you 
must  have  a  Henry  IV. ,'^  which  implies  that  Lord  Shelburne 
had  expressed  a  confidence  in  his  own  power  at  Court  being  equal 
to  Sully's.  In  all  probability,  the  King's  chief  object  was  to  pro- 
duce the  rupture  which  ensued,  and  he  did  it  by  encouraging 
Lord  Shelburne  to  thwart  Mr.  Fox.  It  is  painful  to  me  to  record 
any  misconduct  of  Lord  Shelburne,  or  to  revive  any  reflection  on 
his  character  for  duplicity.  Justice  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Fox 
requires  me  to  preserve  the  facts  on  which  his  persuasion  of  it  was 
grounded,  as  well  as  the  testimony  of  their  contemporaries,  which 
prove  that  such  a  view  of  his  impracticable  and  insincere  character 
and  dealings  was  not  confined  to  Mr.  Fox  and  his  friends. 


END  OF  VOL.  I. 


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